March 17th 2006
 
A delegation of Canadian authorities headed by the Vice Minister for Agriculture, Andrew Marsland, Canadian Ambassador in Caracas, Rene Wielgosz and a numerous group of industrial representatives visited the Venezuelan Food Ministry. Vice Minister Lt. Colonel Rafael Coronado received the Canadian delegation and views and experiences were interchanged with the aim of lending more “added value” to the Food Ministry.  

At the meeting the growth of Mercal was discussed in detail. Mercal is a network of government food stores selling basic food stuffs at reasonable prices, and the “Soup Kitchens” (Mercal Maximum Protection) which cater for 900,000 Venezuelans, the most vulnerable in society, such as street dwellers, pregnant women living in poverty, abandoned children, alcoholics and drug addicts. Also on the agenda was genetic technology in order to increase meat and milk yields and an overview of the buying strategy of fruit and vegetables carried out by CASA (State Food Services Purchasing and Packing Company) from Canada.

 “This week I am being accompanied by producers from the agricultural sector. We are looking for ways of increasing cooperation with Venezuela especially in the area of agricultural products. For example, Canada is a recognized world-wide as a producer of bovine genetics both for dairy products and beef production. We want to be able to work with the Venezuelan meat industry to help them increase milk and beef production”, stated Vice Minister Marsland.

After the meeting the delegation was invited to visit the Endogeneous Development Center “Fabricio Ojeda” in Gramoven in the west of Caracas, where a “Supermercal” is located. Vice Minister Marsland was very surprised by the modern characteristics and size of the Supermercal but what surprised him even more was the speed with which the Venezuelan Food Ministry had been able to set up a network of food distribution with such a wide range of products in less than  three years.

Vice Minister Marsland observed, “I understand that there a more than 14 thousand points of sale throughout the country and all this has been achieved in less than three years. This is obviously a great achievement to place basic foodstuffs within the reach of the population as a whole”.

Ambassador Wielgosz remarked, “Mercal is really impressive and is a roaring success with the majority of the population. It’s been a real pleasure for me to come and see it and appreciate that it is just a marvellous as I had been told”.

CASA and Mercal are still being developed by the Food Ministry and the network will continue to spread and more “mobile Mercals” added, which transport food to places of difficult access by road and even by boat in water borne states such as Delta Amacuro on the Orinoco river delta. Mercal is now the largest distributor of basic food stuffs in Venezuela and as a consequence the private supermarket chains have lost many customers and have been forced to moderate price increases so as to be able to compete.

Currently, 17 million Venezuelans are served by the Mercal chain, out of a population of 26 million. Small producers and agricultural cooperatives sell their production to CASA and thus have a fair price and a guaranteed buyer for their labour. Many of the cooperatives have sprung up from the training and “back to work mission” “Vuelvan Caras” launched in October 2004, which aims to create cooperatives and thus protect mission graduates from the exploitation of the endemic capitalist system still dominant in modern day Venezuela.

Mercal, due to its rapid expansion has suffered from various forms of corruption with subsidized food being siphoned off and sold at commercial outlets and via street traders. However, recent arrests in Tachira state with the perpetrators being held in custody awaiting trial has served as a lesson to other opportunists with similar individualistic designs on the “people’s food”.

CASA still has to acquire many products from abroad since Venezuela imports around 64% of the food it consumes – down from 72% in 1998. Trading agreements within the context of Latin American integration with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay are enabling CASA to import foodstuffs in exchange for energy resources so that Latin American economies “complement each other” and do not “compete head on” in traditional capitalist terms.

This is part of the Bolivarian Alternative for America – ALBA – which places integration, solidarity and the complementation of economies above competition, so that everyone benefits and not just the stronger nations. The human being is at the hub of the ALBA, not profits or the US dollar.

With the land distribution programme well underway in “Mission Zamora” to eradicate millions of acres of idle land and hand them over to small farmers, as well as more Endogenous Development Centres being set up (there are 47 nationwide), the dependence on imported food will decline in the coming years.

The Bolivarian government of Hugo Chavez has the explicit objective of food sovereignty and independence for the security and benefit of the population as a whole. This strategic policy will stop dependence on imported food dominated by a minority capitalist elite which had historically exploited the population with inflated prices and artificial shortages to feather their own nests.

Andy Goodall
VSC Coordinator
andy.goodall@venezuelasolidarity.org.uk