Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): Industry leaders tried to calm the nation's ragged nerves about food shortages saying that supplies of milk to shops and supermarkets would resume within a month days following talks with the government.
Similarly, the farmers' federation, Fedeagro, issued a timetable of between 30 and 60 days for rice to reappear following President Hugo Chávez' decision to increase rice producer prices by 44 percent. Consumer prices for rice are set to rise by an estimated 31 or 32 percent once the foodstuff is back on the shelves.
Roger Figueroa, head of the Venezuelan Milk Industry Chamber, Cavidea, said the availability of fresh and long-life milk would "normalize" in 30 days. He dismissed Chávez' accusations that companies are deliberately hoarding supplies in an attempt to force an increase in official prices set by the government.
Figueroa said that while many companies were reluctant to trade at the official prices – the industry says neither producer nor consumer prices are high enough to cover costs – some firms had decided to do so.
The dairy industry chamber, Cavidea, also denied allegations that shortages were being deliberatelu created to "destabilize" Venezuela. However, Cavidea President Pablo Baraybar said that if prices were unfrozen "we are going to produce much more."
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These men are liars. And to the extent that producers are not actually hurting at the previous set-prices for basic foodstuffs, the socialist government should not be giving in to this corporate blackmail. They're not doing it with Exxon-Mobil for instance, are they? The government must continue setting up socialist agricultural enterprises run by co-operatives and consejos, so that the existing capitalist monopolies will no longer be able to dictate to the people how they want things to be. No effort should be spared in getting as much production as possible out of the hands of capitalists and into the hands of the socialist people as quickly as possible.
ReplyDeleteBesides which: private production really is not superior in any way to collective production, all things being equal. Which they've seldom been in this world.