(Prensa Latina) - "The subsidized-food supply network, Food Market (MERCAL), distributes 4,000 daily tons of products in Venezuela, Food Minister Rafael Oropeza reported.

That number triples the quantity distributed three weeks ago, when President Hugo Chávez criticized deficiencies in that network, one of the social programs for a better distribution of the South American country's resources.

Oropeza told press that they are also working to register new national providers, which have difficulties to join the private distribution networks that are usually supplied by big business.

According to estimates, the MERCAL network provides food to more than 15 out of 26 million Venezuelans, with basic products, subsidized to favour the sectors with lowest incomes".