Data Released by ACNielsen Show That Sales of Packaged Food

Data released by ACNielsen show that sales of packaged food companies such as General Mills, Kellogg's, and Sara Lee only improved 1.4 percent in a period lasting from February 2004 to February 2005, while sales of middlemen's brands grew by more than 3.2 percent during the same period. This means:

A) all packaged food companies lost money .
B) retailers have stopped marketing the products of packged food companies.
C) the prices of middlemen's brands were lower than those of the packaged food companies.
D) there is no pricing gap between packaged food brands and middlemen's brands .
E) the prices of the packaged food companies were lower than the middlemen's brands