Export freeze sows bitterness in Venezuela chocolate trade

http://news.yahoo.com/export-freeze-sows-bitterness-venezuela-chocolate-trade-141645269.html

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Two weeks after Venezuela's agriculture minister announced that he would make the resumption of cacao exports a priority, piles of beans are still sitting in warehouses.

The government's surprise revocation of export licenses this winter for some of Venezuela's biggest cacao exporters adds to a string of problems plaguing an industry that the socialist government once saw as a way to help wean the nation off its dependence on petroleum, which accounts for 96 percent of the country's export revenue.
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Agriculture Minister Jose Luis Berroteran has not explained why the government cancelled export permits, but said the administration is working to resolve the issue and would make resuming exports a priority.

The government itself sees great promise in what is now a niche industry. In 2010, the late President Hugo Chavez called cacao a strategic commodity, like oil, and pledged to convert the country into a "world cacao power."