Breaching prices will be sanctioned with closing

According to Viviana Bonilla, governor of Guayas, sanctions for those who fail to collect benchmark prices of the 46 products regulated by the Government through wholesale level, will consist in the closure of the shops foror seven, fourteen or thirty days, definite closure if repeated and a fine of one hundred dollars for each closure.

List of the 46 Ecuadorian products, whose prices are to be regulated by the Government.

Bonilla also mentioned that the list of prices of the products will be regulated by studies conducted by experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, and that it will be taken into account factors such as seasons, which would change the price on a month scale.

Meanwhile the wholesalers of meat and vegetables have concerns about the information that will be used to place the reference prices.

They argue that there are other factors to consider such as municipal taxes, which vary by area, the number of people trading with the product before arriving at a wholesale market, product quality, the output gap of seasons and contingencies in transportation like floods, rains and landslides.

The Minister of Production, Santiago Leon, defended the decree 1438 and said the government seeks to control speculation in the market, not to set prices.