Resumen

SUAREZ NINO, Juan Carlos  y  MORILLO MORENO, Marysela Coromoto. The impact of exchange controls on the food, beverage and tobacco  industries in the Libertador Municipality (Merida, Venezuela). Agroalim [online]. 2007, vol.12, n.24, pp.63-78. ISSN 1316-0354.

The monetary policy of the national government is relevant for all the sectors of the economy, especially for the food sector industries, given that the country’s food security partly depends on this. Given this there is a need for analyzing the impact of the application of the exchange control policy on the operative activities of this sector. To do so, the population of foods, drinks and tobacco industrial sectors located in the Libertador Municipality of the Merida State were identified as 17, of which 15 were studied. It was concluded that the effects of controls were passed on to the final consumer by higher prices, permitting the industry to increase revenue and the counter at the rise in productions and operational costs given the absence of price controls for many of the products at the time of this study. Price controls had a negative incidence on the industrial operations, however, by limiting the operative growth and the maximum use of its capacity, because the volume of sales, level of inventories and manual labor stayed constants. The exchange control along with other associated factors (such as uncertainty, inflation and shortage of supplies, as well as causes and/or consequences of this regime) limited the will of the industrialists to invest, as demonstrated in the scarce use of external financing

Palabras clave : exchange control; food industry; foods; drinks and tobacco; Merida; Venezuela.