Ministry of Economic Development repeals directive for the purchase and sale of rice

The Ministry of Economic and Productive Development repealed Ministerial Agreement No. 111, dated September 25, 2025, which issued the instructions for the application of the management delegation by contract figure based on criteria of administrative efficacy and efficiency for the public interest project of purchase, storage, and sale of rice. The decision is contained in Agreement No. MDEP-MDEP-2026-0029-A, signed on September 21, 2026, in Quito by Minister Sariha Belén Moya Angulo and published in the Second Supplement of the Official Registry No. 383, on Monday, October 5, 2026, on page 2.

The instrument is based on articles 82, 154 numeral 1, 226, and 227 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador, as well as articles 3, 4, 5, 14, 20, and 22 of the Organic Administrative Code, which establish the principles of efficacy, efficiency, quality, legality, control, legal certainty, and legitimate expectation. The text indicates that the issuance of Executive Decree No. 425, dated June 18, 2026, generated a reorganization of the institutions of the Central Public Administration and that, in this context, it is fundamental to “evaluate and purge the regulations.”

The scope of the repeal

The sole article of the agreement provides for the repeal of Ministerial Agreement No. 111, signed at the time by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries (S). That instrument enabled the application of the management delegation by contract figure for the rice project, under criteria of administrative efficacy and efficiency.

With the repeal, the instructional framework that regulated this management modality for the public interest project of purchase, storage, and sale of rice—one of the links in the grain marketing chain—disappears.

The ministerial merger as a precedent

The agreement details the chain of institutional changes preceding the measure:

• Executive Decree No. 425, dated June 18, 2026, published in the Fourth Supplement of the Official Registry No. 312, dated June 24, 2026, merged by absorption the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade and Investments and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries into the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
• Upon completion of the merger, that portfolio became known as the Ministry of Economic and Productive Development, assuming the competencies, powers, functions, representations, delegations, rights, and obligations of the absorbed entities.
• Executive Decree No. 307, dated February 13, 2026, had attributed to the then Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries the competencies for the purchase, sale, and/or storage of rice and corn, and authorized donation processes.
• Ministerial Agreement No. 0010, dated February 27, 2026, assigned the execution and implementation of Executive Decree No. 307 to the then Undersecretariat of Information and Promotion of Agricultural Marketing.
• Executive Decree No. 609, dated April 16, 2025, appointed Sariha Belén Moya Angulo as Minister of Economy and Finance, a position ratified by Executive Decree No. 11, dated May 27, 2025.

Validity and administrative assignments

The general provisions of the agreement charge the Directorate of Document Management and Archive of the Ministry of Economic and Productive Development with the publication and notification of the instrument. Validity takes effect from the date of its signing, namely, September 21, 2026, without prejudice to its publication in the Official Registry.

The document was electronically signed by Minister Sariha Belén Moya Angulo and validated through FirmaEC, as stated in the published copy.

The repeal occurs two weeks after the same portfolio ordered, through Agreement No. MDEP-MDEP-2026-0022-A —published in Supplement No. 366 on September 10, 2026—, that the Undersecretariat of Information and Analysis continue the public procurement processes initiated or processed by the Undersecretariat of Information and Promotion of Agricultural Marketing, subject to the Organic Law of the National Public Procurement System (LOSNCP) and the internal control standards of the Comptroller General of the State.

The change directly affects rice producers and marketing chain operators, who lose the instructional guide that regulated the delegation of management by contract for the purchase, storage, and sale of the grain. The decision nullifies an administrative mechanism in effect since September 2025 and transfers the operational continuity of the project to the ordinary structure of the new ministry, within a context of institutional reorganization resulting from the merger established by Executive Decree No. 425.

Source: Official Registry, Second Supplement No. 383, Monday, October 5, 2026, Executive Branch, p. 2 (official reference: MDEP-MDEP-2026-0029-A).