More and more food and treats larrive at ports in Venezuela from large stores in the state of Florida. Boxes of Nutella, peanut butter or almond milk, products almost impossible to find until a year ago in the economic implosion of the South American nation, are now offered in more than a hundred stores that accept payments in dollars and operate in the main cities of the country as an escape valve that reduces pressure on Maduro's management.
By MiamiDiario Newsroom
The abundance of candy, cereal, or personal hygiene care items in delicatessen businesses known as “still life” contrasts with the years of scarcity of goods as basic as shampoo or milk during the validity of government controls in much of Maduro's first term.
It was at the end of 2018 when some businesses in Caracas began to offerimported items priced in foreign currency, an unthinkable scene under the tight exchange control which began to wind down in August of that year.
Since then the number of businesses of this type has multiplied in Caracas and recalls the dollar stores that were run by the government in Cuba in the 90s.
Venezuelan businessmen have taken advantage of a silent relaxation of price controls, exchange and import procedures, in force for almost two decades, to buy directly from US wholesalers such as Costco and Walmart.
Products travel through private shipping companies taking advantage of this year unprecedented exemption of 100% of customs taxes and the demand for fewer requirements by the authorities, according to 11 sources among customs agents, operators and businessmen who offer these items.
"I am selling everything"
In a tour of the capital, Reuters counted about 120 new “still lifes”. They are in middle-class areas as well as in the center and west of the city, and they outnumber about 27 supermarkets located in those same areas, which, in general, sell products of the local industry and charge mainly in bolivars.
En Instagram are also multiplied local accounts offering imported food and mark the prices in dollars. “I sell everything I bring from Miami here,” said an anonymous small business owner who has been selling for a few months on social media, and who commented that “now there is more competition, but it is still business.”
In at least half of the more than 100 stores that Reuters visited in Caracas, it was possible to find products from foreign brands such as Members Mark and Kirkland, that in the United States sell two wholesale chains.
“Our clients ask us to buy in Costco or Sam's Club in the United States and we import what they ask us for them”, said an operator of a shipping company that brings supplies from Miami to Caracas and has orders for still lifes from the capital and from two other cities in the country.
The Costco wholesale network declined to comment for this story and the Walmart group did not respond to a request for information. Venezuela's information ministry, tax agency and port authorities also did not respond to requests for comment.
Another query was sent without response to the United States Department of the Treasury for its opinion on these transactions.
all exonerated
Many companies import items from Florida with the support of private shipping services They are looking for the best deals for them to sell them in the stores they own in the country, according to sources.
Other “bodegones” buy from wholesale importers, and it is for that reason that they must offer higher dollar prices to maintain profit margins, so a pancake mix than in Costco can cost about 6,50 dollars, it is sold between 14 and 20 dollars in Caracas, depending on the number of hands you have gone through.
La tax exemption is in effect until December and in the ports the cargo moves quickly, without the need to process health permits nor other documents, add those consulted. No one knows what will happen in 2020.
“These imports have facilities, everything is exonerated”, said a businessman familiar with the operations of shipping products to Venezuela.
Some operators believe that the government prefers to allow the arrival of this merchandise to partially supply the cities, once the sanctions have made it difficult for public entities to purchase abroad and large food industries produce at a minimum in the face of hyperinflation that doubled the number of poor in two years.
"The massification of these types of products and businesses became a State policy to supply”, said Felipe Capozzolo, president of Consecomercio, the union that brings together merchants.
The new scheme for external purchases allows imported products compete in price with those produced in the country, at the same time pay with dollars or euros in cash in the cities. In October, 53,8% of transactions in the main cities of the country were agreed in foreign currency bills, according to local firm Ecoanalítica.
Maduro referred to foreign currency payments for the first time in November, saying it could benefit the economy. "I don't see it badly (...) that process they call dollarization can serve for the recovery and deployment of the country's productive forces," he added on a television program on a private channel.
Source: Reuters