Venezuela Toilet Paper Shortage: 'This is the Last Straw,' Says Resident
The Venezuela government has announced plans to import 50 million rolls of toilet paper after shortages in the country have left residents frustrated.
People in Venezuela are fed up. Basic food products like milk and butter have been hard to come by over the past month, amongst other food product shortages, but it's the most recent item missing on the shelf that have residents fuming: toilet paper.
"I've been looking for it for two weeks," Cristina Ramos told CBS new. "I was told that they had some here and now I'm in line."
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The line crowded the store as people packed in, hearing word that a new shipment of toilet paper had just come in.
"This is the last straw," Manuel Fagundes, 71, said.
He is one of many people looking for answers. But blame for the shortages has been tossed around between private companies and the government, with few answers or solutions provided. It is the media's fault, suggested Venezuelan Minister of Commerce Alejandro Fleming.
"There is no deficiency in production, but an excessive demand generating purchases by a nervous population because of a media campaign that has been created to undermine the country," Fleming was quoted by CNN.
The government will attempt to mediate the situation by importing goods to cover the shortage. It announced this week that it would import 760,000 tons of food and 50 million rolls of toilet paper. But economists say that it's the government that could be at fault.
"State-controlled prices- prices that are set below market-clearing price- always result in shortages. The shortage problem will only get worse, as it did over the years in the Soviet Union," Steve Hanke, professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University, told CBS.
In short, producers just can't afford to make products for that cheap and still break even.
