Venezuela's food shortage by the end of February at 47.7%

State-owned food corporation and oil company Mercal and Pdvsa face shortage at 50%, research firm Datanálisis informed

EL UNIVERSAL

Monday March 17, 2014  10:47 AM

General food shortage in Venezuela has consistently exacerbated for 16 months. Shortage in regulated goods averaged 37.2% in 2013, up 21.3 percentage points with respect to 2012 figures.

In January-February 2014, shortage in regulated products hit 47.7%, rising 31.8 points as against 2012, and 10.5 points compared to 2013, according to Mystery Shopping, a research conducted by Datanálisis in seven distribution routes.

In 2011-2012, none of the categories went through more than 50% of shortage, whereas this year 33% of the goods face more than 70% of shortage.

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Prices up in gov't food network to prevent smuggling

Venezuelan Minister of Food Félix Osorio thinks that keeping prices without any variation is "vulgar"

ANGIE CONTRERAS C. |  EL UNIVERSAL

Thursday March 20, 2014  09:52 AM

Prices of the foodstuffs sold through Mercal, a network of food vendors under the aegis of the Venezuelan government, have risen "step by step" in the last year, with no formal announcement from the Executive Office.

As alleged by Food Minister Félix Osorio, rising prices has been a measure to curb outgoing smuggling of subsidized commodities.

The last "formal" hike of prices in the foodstuffs traded through Mercal network occurred in 2009.

In the minister opinion, keeping prices without any variation is "vulgar."

Osorio downplayed the claims of production problems in Venezuela and attributed imports to a larger demand.

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