Amid the worsening food crisis in Venezuela, the government has ordered food manufacturers to supply food staples to a network of state-run supermarkets.
As cited in the Associated Press, the Food Industry Chamber said producers of milk, pasta, oil, rice, sugar, and flour have been asked to supply between 30% and 100% of their products to the state stores.
With private stores outnumbering state-run stores in the country, chamber president Pablo Baraybar warns of an imminent supply crisis as a direct result of the government's new move. The ratio of private to public stores in the country is around 15:1.
As quoted in the Telegraph, Baraybar said: "problems like speculating will only get worse because the foods will be concentrated precisely in the areas where the resellers go.
"Consumers will be forced to spend more time in queues, given that the goods will be available in fewer stores."
While wealthy citizens buy their groceries at private grocery chains, working-class shoppers often have to endure long hours at state stores to buy staples at heavily reduced prices.
The government has not commented officially on the order as of yet.
Stringent currency and price controls have seen Venezuela being plunged into an economic crisis, with inflation at an all-time high at 64%. Imported food items are hard to find with shortage of US dollars.
President Nicolas Maduro has continued the 'socialist model', and has done little to reform the economy after taking over leadership from Hugo Chavez. He frequently chastises his opponents of hoarding products and sabotaging the supply chain.
The country's poverty rate has gone up from 25% in 2012 to 32% at the end of 2013 under Maduro's rule, says dailycaller.com.
