In a webinar held on Friday, May 7, Venezuela launched the Industrial Upgrading and Modernization Programme, outlined in the Country Program 2018-2024 established in cooperation with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
The event was hosted by Franco Silva, general coordinator of the Venezuela-UNIDO Country Program, and attended by the Vice-president for Planning, Ricardo Menéndez; the Minister for Productive Agriculture and Lands, Wilmar Castro Soteldo; the Foreign Vice-minister for Multilateral Affairs, Daniela Rodríguez; and the Permanent Representative of Venezuela to UNIDO, Ambassador Jesse Chacón, as well as small-, medium-sized producers as members of production chains.
Minister Castro Soteldo highlighted the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on crops as it has made it difficult to achieve the goals proposed in the Venezuela-UNIDO Country Program and also caused gasoil shortages that affect the mobilization of farming machinery.
Castro Soteldo pointed out that, in the face of the US blockade, they have made progress to increase productivity in the seven agri-food chains prioritized in the project such as the production of Venezuelan-made fertilizers, obtaining great results in small-scale farming of corn, rice and beans. As for large-scale farmers, Soteldo explained they started using these fertilizers two weeks ago.
The Venezuelan agriculture minister also mentioned significant achievements in the use of biological pest and fungi controllers, the improvement of seeds through technical in vitro cloning and the reduction of the use of water in rice crops.
Foreign Vice-minister Daniela Rodríguez reaffirmed Venezuela’s complaint about the terrible losses caused by the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the US Government, stressing a 99% reduction of the country’s oil income in 2020.
In this regard, Rodríguez said that the cooperation, solidarity-based relations with the UN System and strategic partners such as Russia and China are essential to face the consequences of the blockade and the multidimensional crisis that has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and the geopolitical competition in the international sphere.
The Venezuelan diplomat thanked the contribution made by the Russian Federation to launch the agro-industrial modernization program.
Likewise, Venezuela’s Ambassador to Austria, Jesse Chacón, praised Russia’s financial support and said that some other projects are pending, including one related to the coffee-cocoa production chain, quality and international commercialization, and one project for the promotion of investment. He also mentioned he will continue coordinating with the permanent missions of allied countries in Vienna to ensure financing to launch these projects.
Background
UNIDO has been developing technical cooperation in the South American nation in the agricultural and agro-industrial areas within the framework of the Country Program 2018-2024 endorsed in May 2018.
Between the second half of 2018 and 2019, UNIDO developed a project called “Comprehensive Development of the Agro-industrial Value Chains” to conduct diagnosis and action plans in seven prioritized agri-food chains (corn, rice, sugar cane, soy, pulses, coffee and cocoa).
Thanks to this diagnosis and action plans, four technical cooperation projects were defined to strengthen the prioritized agri-food value chains, including the Industrial Upgrading and Modernization Programme for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.