U.S. Rice Farmers Cash In On Venezuelan Socialism

STUTTGART, Ark.—Steve Orlicek, a rice farmer here, is living the American dream. He owns a thriving business; he vacations in the Bahamas.

His good fortune springs from many roots, including an unlikely one: He is a prime beneficiary of the socialist economic policies of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's late president and critic of what he called U.S. "imperialism."

It is a paradoxical legacy of Mr. Chávez's self-styled socialist revolution that his policies became a moneymaker for the capitalist systems he deplored. During his 14 years in power, he nationalized large farms, redistributed land and controlled food prices as part of a strategy to help the poor.

But these policies turned Venezuela from a net exporter to a net importer of rice—from farmers like Mr. Orlicek. "The rice industry has been very good to us," Mr. Orlicek said, sitting in his newly renovated home, appointed with a baby grand piano played by his wife, Phyllis.

It isn't just rice. Production of steel, sugar and many other goods has fallen in Venezuela, leading to occasional shortages. Until recently, Venezuela was largely self-sufficient in beef and coffee. Now it imports both.
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American said:

The same thing happened in the USSR with wheat.

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Dittohead not! said:

The same thing happens every time a government tries to control the means of production.

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lizzie said:

from the quote:
It isn't just rice. Production of steel, sugar and many other goods has fallen in Venezuela, leading to occasional shortages. Until recently, Venezuela was largely self-sufficient in beef and coffee. Now it imports both.
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Well, if socialist policies decrease incentive to produce, because there is no monetary incentive to excel, which appears to be a natural outcome of socialist ideology, I would expect nothing other than what is happening.

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The Venezuelan economy experienced better than expected GDP growth of 2.6% for the April – June period this year, with the country’s central bank predicting the economy to continue growing throughout 2013.

According to the Venezuelan Central Bank’s (BCV) report yesterday, the non-oil sectors of the economy which most expanded in the second quarter were finance (24.3%), communications (6.7%), water and electricity (6.0%), manufacturing (5.7%), trade (4.2%), community services (3.6%) and public services (2.9%).

Meanwhile the food industry grew by 9.3% in the last quarter, which will be seen as a positive sign by the government in the struggle against on-going relative shortages in some basic products.

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TheDemSocialist said:

Venezuelan Economy Records Better than Expected Q2 Growth of 2.6% | venezuelanalysis.com

Food is actually growing and the economy in Venezuela is actually growing.

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Dittohead not! said:

According to this, rice production is growing slowly after having declined precipitously for a couple of years.

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TheDemSocialist said:

Food industry as a whole grew over 9%.

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