According to reports by El Panorama and Informe 21 newspapers, there was a militarized intervention by Bolivarian authorities in at least 15 poultry processing facilities dedicated to eviscerating live chicken for consumption. These unprecedented measures are being carried out by officials of the National Bolivarian Guard and the Fair Prices Agency (Sundde). So far, these interventions have been reported in plants in the states of Zulia (western border with Colombia) and Carabobo (midwest region).
"The National Guard and Sundde are occupying companies such as La Guásima, La Caridad and Proagro. They are monitoring how much is being produced, delivered, and to whom and how much. They have been in the facility several weeks now," said an anonymous source from Carabobo to Informe 21. The source also added, “For example, La Guásima has the capacity to process 12,000 chickens a day, but due to the lack of feed, they hardly reach 2,000 a day. The problem here is raw materials.”
This source also added that in Puerto Cabello, Carabobo, there is a ship with soy for chicken feed that has been waiting twelve days for authorization to download. "And that soy shipment is destined to private plants. The government should actually intervene so as to guarantee raw materials arrive on time.” Meanwhile, Panorama said that at least five Zulia chicken processing plants are intervened, behind closed doors, by the national government.
The latter newspaper added that poultry businesses affected by this measure include Proave, Avidoca, Protinal, Vilva and Pinpollo. "Avidoca and Proave have permanent intervention, while Vilva and Protinal have permanent supervision, with products being reassigned [to other users]," said another source, who revealed that the procedure has been carried out for approximately one month in the region. However, the Protinal plant has had a “presidential commission for about two weeks been about two weeks within the facilities "to review fair prices".
The secrecy continues in the regional and national poultry sector and there has been no statement on the matter. The national superintendent of Sundde, Cesar Ferrer reiterated that chicken processing companies, like all the meat chain and various other sectors "are being controlled". He urged entrepreneurs and business owners to "respect the rules and the established prices. The audits will continue; we will neither accept nor permit prices outside the regulations. Anyone selling out of the set value will face penalties by law." Unofficially, it is said that this intervention will last until December. At present, there is a general food shortage in this country, one of the leading food importers in the world.
