Engineer Juan Luis Hernandez, the coordinator of the Red Agroalimentaria -a network of farmers and food industry experts-said that the nutritional component of the products in the government-distributed Clap boxes have low quality.
Around 20% of Venezuelans get the Clap box benefit four times a year, in a scheme that has been labeled a social control tool by the opposition and has produced more corruption scandals than food.
“The product sold as milk is bad, and the cornflour is not right to make arepas- the traditional Venezuelan cornmeal flatbread-. These products are imported and sold at subsidized prices, which is unfair competition with Venezuelan farmers, who have to produce food at very high costs,” Hernandez said.
Meanwhile, the general director of the Venezuelan Milk and Meat Institute, Rodrigo Agudo said that in Venezuela there is a huge deficit in calorie consumption and added that big investments are required in the primary sector of the economy to reduce this food crisis.
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“Investments of around $4.5 to $5 billion are required to reactivate the national industry, as well as to import raw materials and products that supply the national market,” he explained.
Agrifood expert Rodrigo Agudo told El Pitazo that Venezuela has a low capacity for nutritional and caloric supply, with only 60 to 55 percent of the food available here providing a balanced and nutritious diet for the country citizens.
“The lower-income sectors are the most affected in this case because what you need, in terms of protein, is very expensive, which excludes an important part of the population,” he said.
He noted that consumption in the country has fallen in the last two years, precisely, the time that the Venezuelan economy has been in hyperinflation.
