Nestle, retailers nearing compromise

ZURICH, Apr 17 (Reuters): Swiss food group Nestle and retailers including German grocer Edeka are approaching a compromise in their months-long price fight but the outcome of talks remains open, a source close to the negotiations said on Tuesday.

Edeka, Germany's largest supermarket group, had written to its stores this month recommending they expand a boycott of some Nestle products, an escalation of a pricing row between the world's biggest packaged food maker and European retailers.

Nestle and Edeka-led AgeCore - the Geneva-based group of six European retailers that also includes Switzerland's Coop - have not yet reached a breakthrough and the discussions could still fail, the source said on condition of anonymity.

"It's not yet home and dry," the source said. "Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. The talks are ongoing."

Earlier, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that a tentative compromise had been reached and that officials from both sides were hammering out the details of a new contract that the German newspaper said was involved in negotiations.