EXCLUSIVE: Former Cargill executive reveals nightmare operations in Venezuela

CALGARY — A former senior executive at agricultural giant Cargill has offered a rare inside look at how that company operated in Venezuela under former president Nicolas Maduro's regime.Jeff Kazin, who according to his LinkedIn page served as vice-president of trading, procurement, and risk for Cargill from 2009 to 2022, described operating in a country devastated by a decades-long kleptocracy where bribery, government seizures, and widespread theft were commonplace.In a post on X, he recalled one instance where the government took over Cargill’s “Minute Rice” facility at gunpoint, claiming the company was “gouging the local population.”.After the takeover, Kazin stated that the plant never ran again.“The government was never able to run the plant,” Kazin said.“It was returned years later with no equipment inside.”This was one instance of the country’s food system being devastated by government corruption.In 2016, Maduro created the CLAP (Local Committees for Supply and Production) food program with the purported aim of distributing monthly boxes of food staples such as rice, sugar, and flour.CLAP came about in the midst of a severe economic crisis that resulted in historic levels of hyperinflation and shortages in the country.According to the Latin Times, the boxes were criticized for being of very poor quality, with some Venezuelans complaining that, “the rice [had] worms and [that] the flour sometimes comes with spider webs.”At the time, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, said the boxes undermined “the human dignity of the recipients, have become susceptible to political clientelism and do not address the deep causes of hunger and malnutrition in Venezuela.”Kazin relates that the government also controlled the prices of food “and subsidized grocery stores,” which further distorted the market..Poilievre urges immediate pipeline approval as Carney downplays Venezuela oil risk.“Staples like rice, flour, and vegetable oil were sold below cost, forcing private businesses to close. Access to US dollars to import essential raw materials was tightly controlled, often requiring bribes, leaving even well-managed companies unable to operate,” he said.“In theory, they used petro-oil money to lower grocery prices and our regular grocery outlets were forced out of business.”He went on to describe how the government demanded Cargill sell its products below cost, forcing the company to shut down operations.“The populace became ever more dependent on the government handouts,” Kazin stated.There were also accusations that government officials and connected companies siphoned off funds intended for CLAP.Kazin also mentioned the military as being deeply entwined in the economy, with “thousands of generals” each controlling slices of production and trade.“The large number of generals made it difficult to organize a coup against the regime,” Kazin said.Cargill attempted to maintain their operations safely, and Kazin stated employees worked in secure compounds with armed protection, high-speed internet, gym facilities, and weekly boxes of basic staples.However, outside the compounds, the streets were dangerous due to a populace who were desperate, with crime and hunger being rampant.Efforts to build self-sustaining supply chains were also repeatedly undermined by theft and bureaucratic obstacles.Kazin recalled how he once tried to set up a closed-loop wheat planting-to-flour-mill supply chain, only for the military to come and steal “all of the seed wheat for food.”Currency was also needed to go buy raw materials from places such as Canada and the US.“The government would periodically allocate us some dollars that could only be spent on raw materials and freight,” Kazin said.“Eventually only the local companies that [could] and would pay bribes got dollar allocations. We had several facilities closed for lack of raw materials.”.WIECHNIK: US-backed Venezuela oil rebuild threatens Canadian crude exports.However, materials shipped in from foreign suppliers were not immune from government corruption, as seed wheat that was brought intoVenezuela via US donors would normally be stolen right from the ports.Livestock production also collapsed entirely, according to Kazin, as animals could not be protected from theft by armed citizens.“Even if you could raise a pig, you couldn't defend it from being stolen,” he said.“People with guns were hungry.”Kazin, who is now one of the co-founders of Agris Academy, a Minnesota-based educational and consultative entity focused on risk management, says that one of his most significant achievements was helping highly skilled employees leave Venezuela for greener pastures.Many of those who escaped were placed in jobs elsewhere in Latin America by Cargill.“Setting these employees up with high-quality, stable jobs after fleeing remains one of the best things I ever did in my career,” he said, adding that the regime was “more than happy to see the well-educated leave the country.”In light of President Donald Trump saying the US would be running the administration in the country for the foreseeable future after Maduro’s capture on Saturday, Kazin stressed that any response to Venezuela’s crisis must prioritize feeding the population.He called for agricultural exports — rice, wheat, and animal feed — to reach Venezuelans immediately.“The US is already on the clock,” he stated.“The current regime does not care if it starves the population. The orgy of theft will actually accelerate if they believe their days are numbered.“Feed the people first.”

EXCLUSIVE: Former Cargill executive reveals nightmare operations in Venezuela

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