Nestlé has had no contact with the Venezuelan government over threats from Hugo Chávez, the country’s president, to expropriate the company’s local plants.
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On Venezuelan TV yesterday (10 February), Chávez said state-owned dairy firms were having difficulty sourcing milk and blamed Nestlé and dairy giant Parmalat for securing the supplies.
“We are not doing anything by installing plants only to find afterward there is no milk for the plants because it has all been taken by Parmalat or Nestlé,” Chávez said, according to the Financial Times. “This government should turn the screw.”
“If, for example, Nestlé or Parmalat … show that through various economic mechanisms, or through pressure, they are taking the product and leaving state or cooperative plants without the necessary milk … then we have to apply the constitution and we have to intervene and expropriate the plants,” he said.
Nestlé owns six plants in Venezuela and a spokesman from the company’s HQ in Switzerland said it would resist any attempt by Chávez to claim the facilities.
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By GlobalData“We are quite evidently a company that defends our shareholders’ interests. At this stage, we have not received any official notification from the authorities,” the spokesman said.
Officials at Parmalat could not be reached for comment.
