The subsidized food program created by the Nicolás Maduro administration in 2016 has not been able to solve the food needs of Venezuelan families. Seven years on, the products of the food box distributed by the Local Committees for Supply and Production (CLAP for its acronym in Spanish) continue to be low in quality and barely observe international and national standards

April 2023 marked the seventh anniversary of the creation of the so-called CLAP program, the subsidized food distribution system for the low-income population. In less than a decade, the plan devised by the administration of Nicolás Maduro has shown several irregularities that range from the control of the program by the military to corruption in officials at different levels. More importantly, the program does not meet the nutritional needs of the Venezuelan population and the products distributed are often unsuitable for human consumption.

Under the program, food items are distributed in each neighborhood by the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP), which are mostly controlled by supporters of the ruling PSUV party. Hence, doubts arise about the effectiveness of the system due to allegations of discrimination in the access to the program for people who are not members of the party.

Apart from this situation, analysts have pointed out that the food products in the CLAP box continue to fall short of the nutritional needs of an average family. Edison Arciniega, chairman of the Center for Agricultural Food Studies (CEA for its acronym in Spanish), highlighted that the average number of kilograms per family that receives the CLAP box never exceeds 9.10, with a minimum of 7.6, which means that the benefit “does not make a big difference in terms of the food requirements of Venezuelans.”

According to Venezuelan NGO Transparencia, the implementation of the program was “improvised” and brought with it the prolongation of the food crisis that the country experienced both in production and distribution. “It lacked economic or organizational sustainability.”

Maduro recently stated that 7.5 million Venezuelan families receive a CLAP box with food products at least once a month, accounting for 22.5% of the national population, according to official figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE for its acronym in Spanish). Although the percentage of people who benefited seems important, it also means little for a country whose income poverty line reaches 82% of the population.

Maduro also assured that the government ordered the change of all food products in the box for national production in 2020. According to him, 95% of the CLAP content in 2022 was produced in Venezuela. It is worth noting that the import of food for the program led to serious problems of overbilling and corruption, as well as low-quality standards. The drop in imported products also responded to the effects of the United States sanctions against the Maduro administration rather than to a real intention by the government to allow the participation of the private food sector.

An unhealthy diet

The latest report by Edison Arciniega, chairman of the CEA, indicated that Venezuelans currently have an unhealthy diet despite having increased food consumption. The results of the study also suggest that the subsidy program failed to change the food habits of the Venezuelan people.

“In 2022, there was an increase in food consumption, mainly concentrated in carbohydrates capable of generating satiety, while the consumption of other types of food that provide proteins and micronutrients did not grow in the same way,” the report highlighted.

The results of the study indicate that the average consumption of cereals exceeded the suggested levels by 76.54%, while the consumption of beef only reached around 1.16 kilos per person per month.

For its part, the consumption of poultry meat, mainly chicken, reached around 2.21 kg per person per month, which implies a deficit of 1.99 kg (47.30%) with respect to the national suggested consumption of 4.20 kg per person per month. Dairy consumption stood at 2.26 kg of dairy per capita per month, which implies a deficit of 0.16 kg with respect to the suggested levels.

“We are in the presence of an unhealthy diet that manages to increase the number of kilograms of food consumed by each person but perpetuates the sociohistorical patterns of satisfaction of the food needs of the Venezuelan biotype, which translates into an estimated per capita consumption of protein of just 42 grams per day, implying a deficit of 33 grams. Protein food poverty is the starting point of a series of pathologies associated with the immune system, tissue regeneration and early childhood development, all of them highly serious,” Arciniegas stressed.

The CEA chairman also highlighted that the estimated calorie intake of 2,500 kcal per person per day implies a surplus of 300 kcal, suggesting an increased risk of obesity, which may be associated with an acute rebound effect among the people with previous deficit consumption, with the consequent impact on the development of pathologies such as diabetes.

“As a result of the imbalances associated with people’s diet, the situation gives place to a higher incidence of health pathologies associated with malnutrition in the country, such as obesity, stunting and others.”

Poor Quality

The lack of sanitary control in the country has reached the products of the CLAP food boxes. The latest public complaint about irregularities in the products occurred on March 26, when the Sanitary Comptroller in the city of Guanare, Portuguesa state, ordered the halt of the distribution of Atun A, a commercial canned tuna brand distributed through the CLAP program, amid a controversy over the quality of the product that was being delivered to families in the region.

On social media and in the press, people denounced that “Atun A looks like shredded cardboard”. The product is packaged for the program by the company Evalsa, in the western Venezuelan state of Portuguesa.

Added to this are people’s complaints about the poor conditions of the pork legs distributed by the CLAPs during Christmas time. In December 2020, several beneficiaries of the program from the cities of La Guaira, Guarenas, Guatire and Los Teques shared videos on social networks showing the greenish-colored pieces and claimed the meat had a “bad smell.”

Eneida Contreras, 62, a resident of the Petare parish in Caracas, says that “the grains that come in the food boxes are terrible, they never soften when cooked”. Not to mention the corn flour, which I have to mix with a better quality flour so that I can eat it and not throw it away,” she added.

Without a doubt, the most notorious case that illustrates the poor quality of the CLAP products is the powdered milk, which, according to experts, had more powder than milk in it, as demonstrated by investigations of the news site www.armando.info. Beyond the figures, the truth is that Venezuelans are given food products that lack nutritional value, imported from countries like Mexico.

Based on scientific studies, the report established that the powdered milk manufactured by Mexican companies contained values well below the standards established by the National Institute of Nutrition. The products were milk substitutes but by no means full milk, as the labels state.

The report was based on an analysis carried out at the Institute of Science and Technology of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) of eight brands of powdered milk produced in Mexico and distributed in the country between September and December 2017 by the CLAPs, none of which complied with the minimum standards established by Venezuelan agencies, let alone international standards.

One of the findings showed that the so-called “powdered milk” contained calories, protein, fat and calcium levels below the minimum, while the content of carbohydrates and sodium far exceeded the allowed standards.

In addition, at the end of 2021, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Venezuela highlighted that although CLAP has served as a complement of 10% to 20% of the basic diet of the benefited population, it is important to analyze the possibility of increasing and diversifying the food products delivered through the program. In this sense, the agency recognized that some important items such as pasta, rice and oil are delivered in the boxes, but further suggested considering the possibility of integrating more nutrients such as vegetables.

In January 2021, the FAO stated that the supply of food in Venezuela is leaving behind 6.5 million people, which accounts for 25% of the Venezuelan population with no guarantee of food security. In a report, the agency pointed out that Venezuela is now showing an increase in the number of undernourished, hungry, and malnourished Venezuelans who have little access to food.

The final straw was a statement by Mr. Mario Lubetkin, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative of FAO for Latin America and the Caribbean, who pointed out that “no policy by itself can provide the solution to this problem. National and regional coordination mechanisms need to be strengthened to respond to hunger and malnutrition.”

Political undertones

The use of the CLAP food program for propaganda and/or to attract followers to the ruling party became evident in the elections of December 6, 2020, when the committees were incorporated into the Sociopolitical Articulation and Action Network (RAAS for its acronym in Spanish), a novel instance that, according to the official narrative, seeks to coordinate at the local level “the actions between the State and the organizations of the Popular Power in pursuit of the greatest amount of happiness for the people.”

An article published on the Venezuelan news site TalCual indicated that the pro-government investigation platform Misión Verdad admitted that the structure of the CLAPs —which are funded by the Venezuelan State— is used for partisan purposes in favor of the ruling PSUV. “Those who make up the system in the communities, namely the Bolívar-Chávez Units (UBCH), the Communal Councils and the CLAPs, have organized the electoral campaign of Chavismo.”

In a report, Venezuelan NGO Transparencia highlighted that the distribution of food is carried out according to the availability of each product under a worrying discretionary logic: whoever rejects a political ideology will not have access to food. This had been hinted at in 2016 by the governor of the Central Venezuelan state of Cojedes, Erika Farías, who said that the CLAP boxes were not for political opponents or counterrevolutionaries.

Translated by José Rafael Medina