United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Francisco Arias Milla says Venezuela is NOT under threat of crisis in food supply

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): Venezuela is not under the threat of a crisis in food supply, according to Francisco Arias Milla, the head of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in this country. His remarks came in sharp contrast with the continuing stream of warnings that shortages of key food items are lurking just around the corner. Reports on Friday said butchers had stopped selling some cuts of beef.

Milla pointed to the low cost of producing fertilizers and transporting products, both of them direct benefits of the country's wealth in oil. However, he emphasized that the country's relatively comfortable position was by no means certain.

Measures should be introduced to avert a crisis similar to that seen in countries in Africa, Asia and elsewhere in Latin America, he warned. In particular, he pointed to what was happening in the outside world. Corn was the most important cereal in terms of what people in Venezuela consume, Milla continued. But, he noted, corn was also being used to produce ethanol as a substitute for gasoline and other oil products in energy-short economies, above all the United States, the biggest energy market in the world.

"The Agriculture and Land Ministry has initiated a program to augment the production of corn and the supply of white corn," Milla said. "It's vulnerable but it's not a problem at present," he added, taking note of some of measures taken by the government such as the formation of social organizations aimed at ensuring that people had access to food supplies.

Milla then turned to what the people were actually eating, and he was upbeat on this note, too. Venezuelans in the main eat corn, dairy products, meat and beans. These foodstuffs met the people's needs in terms of energy and protein, including the most vulnerable sectors of the population, he added. As to minerals intake, he argued that the threefold increase in the world price of phosphate didn't signify a problem for Venezuela, either, because the country fortunately had sufficient domestic output to meet demand.