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01/10/2006:

"Venezuela's coffee industry in chaos as price of beans doubles"

An attempt by Venezuela's leftwing president, Hugo Chávez, to double the price that coffee producers pay farmers for a sack of beans has led to empty shelves in supermarkets throughout the country and fears of shortages of other basic foodstuffs.
President Chávez, who maintains price controls on basic foodstuffs, raised the price of coffee beans by 100% last month after weeks of protests by coffee farmers.

But most of the country's coffee producers, who buy, roast and grind the beans, refused to sell on the coffee yesterday, claiming their margins had been cut, and began hoarding thousands of sacks of unprocessed beans.

Eduardo Bianco, a representative of the country's coffee producers, said: "The government can't expect us to sell our coffee if it is refusing to increase the prices for a kilo of coffee you buy over the counter in the shops."
As coffee disappeared first from the supermarkets and then from the streets, the National Guard was sent out to confiscate coffee that had been stockpiled at private warehouses.

Two warehouses were raided, and dozens more are on government lists.

Mr Chávez said he would not tolerate the situation. "I've instructed the National Guard to look for the missing coffee and to find every single kilogram of it," he said in his weekly TV and radio show, Hello Mr President. "The army has the permission to seize the coffee with the power of attorneys and judges. We will sell the coffee at prices set by us."
guardian.co.uk

The subtext of course is that the producers are fabulously wealthy landed gentry while the growers are poor campesinos. The growers could simply develop co-ops for roasting and retail selling, but Chavez is trying to play ball with the producers, who no doubt one and all are part of the opposition to him.

Venezuela to expand fuel discounts to U.S.