Venezuela’s Silos La Flecha Works at Full Productivity

June 13, 2008 - Silos La Flecha (the sword) is the biggest in Latin America. It is composed of 5 modules with a storage capacity of 225,000 metric tons and it is set up for the reception of raw material.

President’s Chavez government has been working in order to guarantee food supply to the Venezuelan people. He has implemented a series of plans aimed at limiting neoliberal policies and reducing the food shortage, confronting the food hoarding by private companies.

In this sense, the revolutionary government has boosted strategies aimed at offering good quality products to consumers at low prices. One of these initiatives consists on the creation of silos, food storage systems, all around the country.

The president of the Storage and Agricultural Service Corporation (CASA Spanish acronym), lieutenant Colonel Rodolfo Marco Torres and Colonel Carlos Osorio, the supervisor of Silos and Agriculture Warehouse (SADA Spanish acronym), made a tour of the facilities of Silos La Flecha located in the parish Río Acarigua, municipality Araure, state of Portugueza. They reviewed the facilities in order to verify if these warehouses are operating properly and to check the receiving process of raw material with a view to the winter harvest which will come in September.

High capacity of agriculture storage

According to CASA’s president, La Flecha is the biggest horizontal silo in Latin America: “It is composed of 5 modules containing three silos each, with a capacity of 15,000 metric tons each, which add up to a total of 225,000 metric tons. These silos work at full productivity.”

Likewise, Marcos Torres stated that this plant is able to receive, store, set up and deliver 5 types of product at the same time. He also indicated that the reception of raw material such as white and yellow corn, sesame, sorghum and sunflower will begin in September.

Torres said that La Flecha makes up part of the strategic plan of the national government aimed at guaranteeing the food supply for Venezuelan people and stated they expect to double the number of raw material receptions which was amounted to 52,000 tons last year.

Articulating private and public sector

Supervisor Carlos Osorio said that about 75 per cent of raw material storage in these silos is in the hands of the private sector.

It is important to know Venezuela’s storage capacity is 4700 tons of products and the government controls around 1154 tons provided by the public sector.

“We know that the private sector has a great responsibility regarding the national supply and we are working to articulate the efforts aimed at reaching the food sovereignty of the country,” Osorio added.

History of Silo La Flecha

This silo was built in 1983 and, in 2003, it was controlled by a private company. The Polar Company was in charge of the plant for 15 years; the Agroisleña Company was in charge in 2002 and CASA Corporation took charge in 2003.

The Bolivarian Government, through CASA, made a considerable investment in order to recover and widen the plant’s facilities, which increased its capacity to receive and store shipments. The main purpose of the Venezuelan State is to guarantee the sustainable development.

Guarantee of the food supply

Osorio also said that “around 172,000 tons of rice are stored in the private and public silos of the country, which guarantees rice supply from the present time up to August.”

Likewise, Osorio stated that Venezuela recently set off the Integral System of Food Control (SICA Spanish acronym), which controls in a safe way the commercialization of food supply for the basic food basket in the whole country in order to avoid hoarding and guarantee food sovereignty in Venezuela.

Silo La Flecha for all sectors

According to supervisor Carlos Osorio, La Flecha silos are open to all the producers of the state of Portuguesa.

He informed that this plant generated around 80 direct and 500 indirect jobs. It offers work conditions to many Communal Councils of the region.

He also informed that the Banco Agrícola (Agriculture Bank) and the superintendent’s office of the silos unified efforts in order to activate the social comptroller’s office to supervise CASA’s operation.

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