AMERICA/VENEZUELA - Tons of food products left to expire could have fed 500,000 needy families

Caracas (Agenzia Fides) – The scandal connected with tons of food purchased abroad to feed the poorest Venezuelans and then left to expire in their containers is occupying a prominent place in the media and public debate in the Latin American country. Gathering information from different sources, Fides has learned that the Mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, has denounced the case of expired foods that were found in complete decomposition as "an act of grave irresponsibility." The mayor spoke of 87 million pounds of food destroyed, which could have fed about 500,000 families in the country. He also launched an appeal for the Head of State to intervene, as a good father, and take control of the situation. According to the mayor, these provisions "could help many elderly and needy families. They could help many people who are in extreme poverty. We are not a rich country, there are many poor among us."
According to the local press, the food arrived at different ports in Venezuela in 2008, and currently there is no exact number of how many thousands of tonnes have been lost. Official figures show that in Venezuela at least 6 percent of the population suffers from malnutrition, a rate similar to what the government recognizes as extreme poverty. The State and the private sector of Venezuela import nearly eight billion dollars in food, including milk, butter and cheese, beef and chicken, oil, flour, sugar, maize, beans, and other products that during the last decades of the twentieth century had been exported, such as coffee, which today comes from Nicaragua. In Puerto Cabello alone (150 kilometers northwest of Caracas) around 1,200 containers with 35,000 tons of beef, pork and chicken, dairy products, vegetable oil, flour, sugar, marmalade, and salt were left unused. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 09/06/2010)