CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said yesterday that the country’s two largest coffee roasters would be nationalized.
The government took control on Monday of the two roasters, Fama de America and Cafe Madrid, to help supply the domestic market. The companies denied government accusations they illegally exported coffee.
“We intervened in these big companies and are preparing a study to expropriate them,” Chavez said during a televised speech at a military ceremony.
“They will become property of the people, property of the nation — enough is enough!”
Chavez, a former paratrooper who has been in power for more than a decade, said he would continue nationalizing monopolies to convert them into “productive companies in hands of the workers.”
Chavez has nationalized large swathes of OPEC member nation Venezuela’s economy, including a rice mill owned by Cargill Inc earlier this year and dozens of oil service companies this spring.
Fama de America and Cafe Madrid are two of the best known coffee brands in Venezuela, a traditional coffee exporter.
Producers and roasters had said the South American country faced a shortage of around 300,000 quintales to ensure supply until the 2009/2010 harvest begins in October. Each quintal equals a 46-kg bag.
The government had accused roasters and growers of speculating and illegally exporting to neighboring Colombia, where prices are much higher than those fixed in Venezuela.
