Venezuela Ends Beef and Milk Import Preferences
VENEZUALA - The Venezuelan Minister of Agriculture and Lands announced the end of the import preferences that were given to beef and milk in 2008 “because the supply problems have been solved.Now the importers of milk and meat must go through the normal procedures to obtain foreign currency.” He added that other reasons for the end of these preferences are that “we have managed to increase domestic production and also the international market is not as volatile as in 2008.”
Minister Jaua reported that the government seeks to maintain an import quota of about 30 per cent of the total supply. Based on 2008 estimates of consumption, Venezuela would be importing at least 175,000 tonnes of meat for the whole year.
But Fedenaga (Venezuelan Cattle Association) reported last week that in the first three months of the year 100,000 tonnes of meat were imported, and this would represent a 68 per cent of the imported meat share and 32 per cent of national beef consumption demand from January to March 2009.
Dairy companies and traders of cattle and beef will need to request again the labourr, social security and housing solvencies documents, as well as non-production or insufficient production certificates necessary to obtain import permissions. The Agricultural Minister announced that interested importers will need to meet all the requirements in order to get from Cadivi the approval for foreign currency.
TheCattleSite News Desk