CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Venezuela's National Guard confiscated more than 100 metric tons of wheat flour, rice and other foodstuffs from Empresas Polar on allegations the nation's top food producer was hoarding product, according to a report Friday in the newspaper El Nacional.
The move was the latest in a long-running battle between the socialist government of President Hugo Chavez and Polar, one of the country's most popular private companies. Chavez has several times threatened to nationalize Polar.
National Guard commander Luis Bohorquez said the food was confiscated after it was discovered Polar was fudging its inventory counts to make it appear it had less food than it actually had. The food will be delivered to government-run supermarkets "to guarantee it arrives to the Venezuelan people," Bohorquez added, according to the newspaper.
Venezuela has in recent months been facing sporadic shortages of items such as milk, meat, sugar, coffee and flour. As such the government keeps strict tabs on the warehouse inventories of both public and private food producers.
Government critics say the food shortages are due to Chavez's push toward socialism, which they say is reducing national output as food production increasingly is put in the hands of the government. Chavez says the fault lies with the remaining private companies such as Polar, which he says secretly export product to earn more profits rather than keeping it in Venezuela, where there are strict price controls.
Jose Antonio Silva, head of public affairs at Polar, called the government action Thursday "unjust and arbitrary," according to the newspaper. He said a modest variation between the inventory log and what is actually on warehouse shelves is inevitable due to a continuous production flow.
Several months ago, Chavez ordered the expropriation of a set of Polar warehouses in Barquisimeto, but the company has challenged the ruling in court, and so far the warehouses remain in Polar's hands. The confiscation of food Thursday took place at a different set of warehouses in Barquisimeto.
-By Dan Molinski, Dow Jones Newswires; 58-414-120-5738; dan.molinski@dowjones.com

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05-21-10 0811ET
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