Venezuela Breaks US Blockade with Food Exports (+FAO)

In the midst of the consequences of the blockade imposed by the United States and the European Union, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has made achievements in terms of food exports. This was reported by Venezuelan Minister for Agriculture and Land Wilmar Castro Soteldo, at the 37th United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) regional conference.

In his speech, via video-conference, the top Venezuelan official highlighted the implementation of the Great AgroVenezuela Mission, a supra-institutional methodology designed to meet the needs of the population in terms of food sovereignty.

“Venezuela closes the year, for the first time in its history, after almost 100 years, with food exports exceeding 260,000 tons and plans to reach 290,000 tons this year,” the official explained.

He also noted that out of these exports the country made 36,000 tons of coffee available to the market. At the same time, he invited all the countries to participate in the First International Coffee Meeting; which will be held in Caracas on May 5, 6 and 7, “where for the first time Venezuela will show the world the quality of its Arabica coffee.”

Food is priority
Among other objectives that materialized through the Great AgroVenezuela Mission, Wilmar Castro Soteldo highlighted the designation of a single productive credit portfolio. In this way, public and private banks must contribute at least 25% of their circulating money supply to financing agricultural producers of different sizes and types.

He also mentioned the growth registered by the goat and sheep sectors in recent months, and spoke of the prioritization of the peasant sector, through the State Purchase Plan, with which the goods of small and medium-sized agricultural producers are marketed.

He also referred to the work of the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP), which work through 35,000 grassroots organizations to distribute food, which is 98% subsidized, to more than seven million families every month.

Additionally, he confirmed that to date they have handed over around 1.7 million hectares of land to peasants, with emphasis on indigenous communities located in border areas of the nation.

Featured image: Coffee production. File photo.

(RedRadioVE) by José Manuel Blanco Díaz

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/KW