President Hugo Chavez’s government is trying to cope with scattered shortages of some foods, and long lines at state-run “Megamercal” street markets over the weekend show many Venezuelans are willing to wait for hours to snap up a handful of products they seldom find in supermarkets.

“You have to get in line and you have to be lucky,” said Maria Fernandez, a 64-year-old housewife who was buying milk and chicken on Sunday. She said trying to find milk is a constant frustration. She had almost managed to get powdered milk at a private supermarket — only to watch someone else walk away with the last can.

The long lines for basic foods at subsidized prices are paradoxical for an oil-rich nation that in many ways is a land of plenty. Shopping malls are bustling, new car sales are booming and privately owned supermarkets are stocked with American potato chips, French wines and Swiss Gruyere cheese.

Yet other foods covered by price controls — eggs, fresh chicken — periodically are hard to find in supermarkets. Fresh milk has become a luxury, and even baby formula is scarcer nowadays.

The shortages are prompting some Venezuelans to question Chavez’s economic policies while he campaigns for constitutional changes that, if approved in a Dec. 2 referendum, would let him run for re-election indefinitely.

Some government officials accuse producers of holding basic goods off the market to profiteer or to sow discontent among Venezuela’s poor, Chavez’s core supporters.

Economists say the factors behind the shortages are numerous, including surging demand due to economic growth.

The government’s price controls are also “totally divorced” from reality — in some cases below production costs — making it unprofitable for suppliers to sell their products at official prices, said economist Pedro Palma of the Caracas consulting firm MetroEconomica.

More investment is needed in agriculture but the government’s agrarian reform effort — assuming control of vast farmlands and offering them to poor farmers — has made traditional producers reluctant to invest, he said.

And importers also face hurdles. Currency exchange controls imposed in 2003 by the government require state approval to obtain dollars at the official rate. Those without approval regularly turn to the black market, buying dollars for about three times the fixed rate.

To compound the problems, Palma said, some of the products Venezuela looks to import, such as milk and sugar, are scarce internationally.

Many of those in line at the Megamercal said they are grateful to Chavez for subsidized markets offering prices far cheaper than commercial supermarkets. But they also complained of struggling to find milk, chicken, sugar and cooking oil elsewhere at prices set by the government.

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