The on going unavailability of foreign exchange could hamper Venezuela’s chances of being supplied with food items from T&T.
So said president of the Supermarkets Association of T&T, Dr Yunus Ibraham, and CEO of Arima Discount Mart (ADM), Balliram Maharaj.
Faced with a food crisis, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro, who held bi-lateral talks with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on Monday, offered to purchase from T&T US$50 million in food for its citizens.
Among the items the neighbouring country were interested in were butter, chicken, pork, ketchup, rice and black beans.
While the food would bring much relief to thousands of Venezuelan citizens, Ibrahim said his primary concern was how this new arrangement would affect domestic supply.
In the last few weeks, Ibrahim said suppliers had complained about the unavailability of foreign exchange which was hampering their productivity.
“The suppliers themselves had issues with raising the capital with respect to the US dollar to bring in the raw materials for the purpose of food production,” he added.
Since then, Ibrahim said they have had “somewhat of a stop gap measure, an initiative through direct loans from the EximBank arrangement. That was for food manufacturers and importers.”
With this new arrangement, he said Government would now have to focus its attention on suppliers and importers who would supply Venezuela with food.
He said if the forex shortage continues, manufacturers would be unable to bring in raw materials.
“If they (manufacturers and suppliers) can’t replenish their warehouses because of the non-availability (of forex) this could pose a problem.”
Also speaking on the issue was Maharaj who said suppliers and manufactures had no foreign exchange to pay for imported goods.
“You are going to create a dent in our foreign exchange and our supply of goods. You may be adding fuel to fire here,” he said.
ADM is one of the country’s largest importer of food.
While Maharaj praised T&T for helping Venezuela which was in distress, he said: “We cannot get goods to sell because we have no foreign exchange. It could have an effect on supply here.”
He said the little foodstuff we have “for our people” was now being offered to Venezuela.
“It just demonstrates that our supplies will be short. I think it is something that should be thought of. I have a problem because we don’t have enough for local consumption,” Maharaj said.
As the distributor of the Rainbow brand, Maharaj said for the past year suppliers had reduced their imports.
“Most importers had to cut their imports because of the shortage in foreign exchange, not forgetting the cost of one US dollar which is almost TT$7 now,” he added.
To compound matters, Maharaj said food items, such as peas and beans, have been difficult to obtain abroad.
Yesterday, president of the Poultry Association of T&T, Robin Phillip, said the news of Venezuela wanting to buy from T&T was welcoming.
Unsure of how the arrangements would be worked out between the two countries, Phillip said the poultry industry was interested in supplying Venezuela with chickens.
“We think it is a great opportunity for the poultry industry and country to get access to a market as large as Venezuela. The poultry industry has excess capacity which Venezuela can tap into,” he said.
Phillip, who also serves as director of marketing at Arawak and Company Ltd, said it would take 12 weeks to ramp up their chicken supply.
T&T consumes approximately one million heads of chicken weekly of which 80 per cent is locally produced with the remaining 20 per cent being imported.
“We could supply Venezuela with 100,000 chicken a week. It is not an insignificant amount,” Phillip added.
He said the poultry sector would offer Venezuela a competitive price for its chickens.
Yesterday, Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon said she was still having dialogue with Venezuelan officials for a contingent to come to Trinidad to discuss the issue further.
President of T&T Manufacturers’ Association, Dr Rolph Balgobin, did not respond to a voice message on his cellphone yesterday. Several calls also went unanswered.