President Chávez Threatens To Seize Milk Plants

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez has threatened to seize the assets of the country's milk producers after claiming that state-owned dairy firms were having difficulty sourcing milk because the supplies had already been illegitimately secured by international companies. Chávez singled out Italian-based dairy giant Parmalat and Swiss-based Nestlé and suggested that these firms may pressurise or blackmail Venezuelan farmers to obtain their milk for export. These accusations are unlikely to have much basis in reality and Venezuela's milk shortages are more likely to have been created by the country's system of price controls, which deter production and investment. However with the

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