Demand of food energy, food availability and nutrient intake in Venezuela: Main changes and their nutritional implications

The main objective of this article is to analyze food demand in Venezuela, in order to examine the influence of real food prices, real income and its distribution, as well as other factors (such as domestic production, domestic agribusiness, land tenure, imports, shortages and food public networks), on the consumption of food and nutrients in Venezuela during the 1970-2014 period. Thus, based on official data and other secondary sources, a regression model using Ordinary Linear Square was estimated and some food and nutrition indicators were also constructed. Main findings show significant estimators and with expected signs for real prices, imports, domestic food production and real income and its distribution as explanatory variables of food demand in Venezuela. Nevertheless, future food and nutrition policies should focus on improving income distribution and stimulate domestic food production, rather than maintaining low prices and overvalued exchange rates, since such policy tools have discouraged domestic production and increased external dependence of Venezuela in terms of food security.