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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened on Friday to nationalize coffee producers if they refuse to sell the product at government-controlled prices.
Producers "are hoarding coffee, waiting for me to raise the official price, but I won't raise it," said Chavez, speaking to pro-government lawmakers. "If they don't want to roast the coffee in the roasting facilities they have, we will take the roasters ... we will nationalize them."
Coffee is vanishing from store shelves across this South American country as producers protest the strict state-imposed price limits, arguing the controls are strangling profits.
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