Venezuela struggling to increase food security

The Venezuelan government has expanded its efforts to preserve food security across the country. To this end, it has adopted efficient measures in chain supermarkets. But some critics say food has become part of a political play in the Latin American nation. Our correspondent in Caracas, Jesus Silva reports.

The Venezuelan government has continued its struggle to protect citizens’ food security by supplying essential food goods at low prices and keeping subsidies on state-owned chains of supermarkets nationwide.
However on the streets, some Venezuelans complain that certain stores skip the government’s regulations and illegally increase prices. They say that rising prices have hit most consumed products as corn flour, pasta, rice, cooking oil, among others.

Others say the government is removing the current problems in food sales, although certain costumers are worried about possible scarcity consequently. So, they buy more goods than what they actually need.

Experts say such worried costumers are driven mainly by the opposition groups whose purpose is to destabilize Venezuela’s economy ahead of this year’s parliamentary elections.

Food security is related to citizens’ wellbeing but it has also become part of a political play in Venezuela. While the opposition encourages protests among costumers due to what they call food scarcity and high prices, socialists say they are still hopeful that the government will manage to meet the people’s nutrition needs.