My Venezuela Nightmare: A 30-Day Hunt for Food in a Starving Land
Venezuelan here. Feel Free to ask me anything.<p>I am in a privileged position, though, I understand the situation of &#x27;common people&#x27; as I work closely with them as a local business owner.<p>This journal is really close to the reality.<p>To those wondering about &#x27;side markets&#x27; and &#x27;farmers marking a killing&#x27;, let me explain.<p>There is a black market for food and any other good. Shortages are real, especially when it comes to medicines. It&#x27;s easy to find pasta or rice comparatively. People with chronic diseases are dying - the patients that have the medicines they need require foreign help either from family or friends.<p>About 5 years ago the minimum wage was about $300. Today it&#x27;s $40. You can find in any major city people looking for food in the dumpsters. [1]<p>Why are farmers and producers not making a killing? It&#x27;s not that simple, but there&#x27;s definitely people making a killing: black market traffickers which are mostly politicians and military men in strategic positions.<p>I know a few farmers, so I will speak from experience. This farmer friend I have - let&#x27;s call him Jose, produces milk and his family has been doing so for more than 40 years.<p>Jose is the vet in the farm. Venezuela was suffering a long drought due &quot;El Nino&quot; that also affected the electric service. Cows were producing less milk due this - medicines for cows are really hard to get (probiotics, antibiotics, etc), food for animals is mostly imported - just like medicines. The biggest problem, though, is what&#x27;s brought us here: The government economic policies.<p>The market for foreign currencies is regulated. Only the government and through the government currencies can be exchanged. Since the government depends heavily on oil for foreign currency we&#x27;ve seen quite a dip in imports. In other words, the government lacks liquidity. Which is why it&#x27;s really hard to legally obtain imported goods, so if you produce in Venezuela and sell your product in Bolivares (local currency) you would have to get Dollars (foreign currency) to import anything - the government is basically saying no to 95% of requests for currency exchange.<p>The market for [most] producers is highly regulated. No milk producer can produce milk higher than the fixed price given by the government. For most, there&#x27;s no incentive.<p>The government is printing money like crazy making inflation soar (we have the highest inflation in the world! [2])<p>As you can see, most producers have no incentive as they will not see profit in their ventures since they have a cap for what they can sell the product for.<p>Imagine that the U.S government says by law &quot;1 pound of rice will cost $1 or less&quot; and anyone selling for more is breaking the law. If the cost of producing rice is $0.1c this would be fine, however, for the rice producer each pound of rice costs $1.5 - how many people do you think are going to produce rice? This happens in Venezuela in almost all product categories (milk, coffee, beans, rice, pasta, flour, and I could keep going, the list is really long).<p>What has the government done to fix the issue? Basically, nothing since their policy &quot;fixes&quot; is to control more and more our economy.<p>The government solution to the food shortages and I must say, this is really hard to explain, is to give out bags of food with goods distributed by the &quot;own people in the community&quot;. I don&#x27;t see how will this ever work, since while it&#x27;s not free they&#x27;re giving out a bag for $1 that in the black market can easily go for $10, a golden goose for the corrupt. The government is completely ignoring, what in my opinion is far worse, which is, the lack of medicines of any kind for the most part.<p>The government controls the media, the military, and all forces but one - the legislative power, though through political tricks they&#x27;ve found ways to mostly neutralize it. This year - 2016 - we could potentially have a referendum, though the government is making everything it can to avoid it and I must, sadly say, I believe they&#x27;re succeeding.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.el-nacional.com&#x2F;sucesos&#x2F;Venezolanos-desesperados-buscan-comida-basura_0_850715221.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.el-nacional.com&#x2F;sucesos&#x2F;Venezolanos-desesperados-...</a><p>[2]  <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;money.cnn.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;04&#x2F;12&#x2F;news&#x2F;economy&#x2F;venezuela-imf-economy&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;money.cnn.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;04&#x2F;12&#x2F;news&#x2F;economy&#x2F;venezuela-imf-e...</a>