00:00Today Venezuela produces 90% of the food it consumes.
00:04This, however, was not the case for more than a century, when it imported 80% of what its
00:10population ate.
00:11Our correspondent Brian Muir brings us closer to the protagonist of that achievement with
00:16the following report.
00:20For over 100 years, as it exported huge amounts of commodities like petroleum to the global
00:25north, Venezuela imported over 80% of its food.
00:31After years of Bolivarian government policies stimulating import substitution, over 90%
00:37of the food consumed in Venezuela is now produced nationally.
00:41Here in our stall we have the best prices, fresh merchandise, good and cheap, affordable.
00:50It's all domestic production.
00:52It comes from the state of Merida, from Tujillo, from Banquisimeto.
00:56We buy from suppliers who deliver right here by car.
01:04This strategy of guaranteeing food sovereignty paid off between 2017 and 2020 when unilateral
01:11sanctions imposed by the imperialist United States caused a 90% drop in national income.
01:18In these difficult years, which Venezuela has been steadily recovering from, food sovereignty
01:23minimized the severity of what could have become a national hunger crisis.
01:28It's all been grown locally.
01:30Things like guava, cassava, pineapple, partilla, pechita, everything really.
01:35Everything is moving a little.
01:36And the weather is nice today, too.
01:38And we're moving along.
01:40Sales have moved along a bit today, too.
01:42We're moving forward steadily, little by little.
01:46This month, Acting President Delcy Rodriguez announced the formation of an Agri-Food, Industrial
01:51and Communal Central Command, a strategic body designed to ensure a constant food supply
01:57and strengthen national production.
02:00Its emphasis on strengthening family farmers doesn't just guarantee a healthy and varied
02:04food supply, it's good for local economies.
02:08There are very important issues that have to do with where money is spent, where it is consumed,
02:14and where it is invested.
02:15Here we are investing in the local economy, in the national economy, and at the same time
02:19in the circulation and reinvestment of those surpluses into the community's own development.
02:24This ensures that people are not only consuming food, but are also managing to invest in developing
02:29their local economies, which is the Venezuelan model.
02:32This month, Acting President Delcy Rodriguez announced that Venezuela has had 19 consecutive
02:39quarters of GDP growth.
02:42Brian Muir, Telesur, Caracas.
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