President Chavez claims that Cargill is producing a special rice in order to “evade price controls.” According to the CNN article, Cargill has been producing the rice in question for many years in Venezuela.
In a related item, Radio Netherlands Worldwide is reporting that:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has called on the army to occupy all of the country's rice-producing plants. He says this a purely temporary measure. He is angry that rice producers, among them the US firm Cargill, are asking too high a price for their product. He says the average consumer is the victim of such pricing. He is also annoyed at the producers because they have refused to stick to the price for rice set by the government.
