Venezuela's top food maker fights expropriation

CARACAS, Venezuela

Venezuela's largest food producer says it will ask the country's Supreme Court to annul a mayor's order to expropriate property where it has warehouses and offices.

The legal director for Empresas Polar says the corporation will seek an injunction allowing its operations to continue. Guillermo Bolinaga spoke at a news conference Wednesday.

Polar, which makes everything from mayonnaise to beer, has property on the outskirts of the city of Barquisimeto in northwestern Venezuela.

Mayor Amalia Saez, an ally of socialist President Hugo Chavez, says the property is to be used for housing. Her order last week came a month after Chavez ordered Polar to cede the land for use by the community.