THE CARIBBEAN AREA. — VENEZUELA 



Venezuelan prices are high, particularly for imported products, and the con^aratively 



low prices for fish in certain localities permit workers to purchase fairly frequently. 



Fishermen and laborers on daily wages draw about 3 Bolivares or 90 cents U. S. for a day's 

 toil. 



In the interior of Venezuela, nationally salted and canned fish are regular articles of 

 diet. Flat cans of sardines with 110 to 130 grams of contents retail widely at .50 Bolivar 

 per can (15 cents U. S.). Salt fish is sold for .50 to 1.50 Bolivares per kilogram (7 to 21 

 cents U. S. per pound). This salt product varies widely in quality. It is somewhat inferior 

 to the salt fish of world commerce in keeping characteristics, usually has higher water 

 content, and is some times rancid even before leaving the producer. 



Marketing 



Much of the difficulty in securing widespread use of fresh fish is in the lack of 

 facilities for handling fish in that condition. The catch often reaches the consumer in a 

 poor state owing to lack of cover for the fish and ice in the boats, lack of packing in 

 ice during transportation, and lack of cold-storage and sanitary-displaying spaces. If 

 adequate facilities were provided this would tend to raise the price of fish. This would 

 result in a reduction of potential buying power, but this tendency should be more than 

 offset by reduction of loss from spoiling of shipments. Increased consumer's demand for 

 the fish should result from the bettering of quality. Ensuing increased production would 

 result in enlarged profits to producers and handlers and lower prices to consumers. 



In Venezuela the production or harvesting of perishable food commodities is confined 

 largely to the amount of such crops thay can be sold locally without special handling or 

 storage facilities. This limitation keeps the industries so small that their unit costs 

 of producticai are high. To lower unit production costs, changes should be made in the 

 processes of production, distrtbution, and marketing together. These activities are inter- 

 dependent. The relatively few attempts at fisheries development that have been made in 

 many Latin-American countries have been limited to only one phase of the problem and, 

 consequently, have met with such questionable success that they have discouraged rather 

 than encouraged the investment of private funds in the fishing biisiness. Attempts to make 

 larger catches of fish reportedly have been successful on severed occasions but these 

 supplies of fish have been larger than the markets have been accustomed to absorb. The 

 surplus either has been held until unfit for food or been sold at prices too low to justify 

 the additional catching effort. Small markets and refrigeration units constructed with 

 limited funds in an el fort to hold or mercliandise fish in improved manner have had difficulties 

 because of limited, irregular, poor-quality, or high-priced supply. 



Cold-storage facilities are extremely limited in the Caribbean area, Tlhere established, 

 they have been constructed to accommodate supplies shipped in from other countries or local 

 supplies collected for export to high-priced foreign markets. Imported perishables are 

 priced far above the purchasing power of the average Venezuelan. These products, purchiased 

 by the comparatively small wealthy class, are able to absorb cold-storage charges without 

 difficulty. Products destined for sale to the low-income classes, however, could not easily 

 carry the extra charges when considered on the basis of existing production and handling 

 costs. 



Canning 



The present f J sh-canning industry in Venezuela was initiated in 1938, chiefly through 

 Government loans to three companies. One company had its headquarters at Maracaibo but has 

 since been liquidated. Another was ocated at Cumana, Estado Sucre, and this enterprise is 

 operating on a lar^e and successf'J. scale. The third was located at Porlamar, Isla Margarita, 

 and it, too, has been successful. Before 1938, canning operations v.ere very rudimentary and 

 practically confined to one small hand cannery at Puerto Cabello v;hich prepared an expensive 



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