Faced with food shortages and an uncertain economy, Venezuela, as part a plan to initiate the rationing of food, will begin to install around 20,000 fingerprint scanners at supermarkets across the socialist country.

According to President Nicolas Maduro, the new system once in place will reduce food hoarding and counter panic buying.

Venezuela has, over the last year, suffered many long supermarket lines due to the widespread lack of basic items.

Maduro, who contends that the shortages were artificially caused by a manipulation by the food suppliers, has according to a BBC article announced that seven major retailers have agreed to install the scanners in their stores.

Following the failure of a voluntary card system earlier in the year, the Venezuelan government introduced the plans for compulsory biometric cards in August 2014.

There has recently been a big shake up in the Venezuelan retail world, as just last month the owners of several chains of supermarkets and drugstores were arrested for allegedly artificially creating long lines by not opening up enough registers.

Aside from blaming the supermarkets and drugstores, Maduro has also accused Colombian food smugglers of purchasing price-controlled goods in the state-run supermarkets along the border.

South American foreign ministers announced last week that the region would help Venezuela tackle the food shortage problem.

There have been many, often times violent, anti-government demonstrations in the last year.

A lack of staple foods and medicines has been a major reason for the protests.

Venezuela, already suffering an economic crisis, has taken a further blow by falling oil prices.

The falling oil prices have been especially hard on the country as crude oil makes up 95 percent of its exports.

The combination of Venezuela's plummeting currency rates and the falling price of oil, which has fallen by nearly half since November, has greatly affected the country’s ability to purchase imported food.