In a press conference on Monday, the president of the CEE, María Paz Jervis, has described as “incomprehensible and inapplicable” the decision to halt local industries for as long as 10 hours a day for 15 consecutive days, in the midst of the energy crisis gripping the country.

Jervis indicated that this situation would eventually affect dairy production, as some 500 thousand liters of milk woul remain unprocessed. Accordingly, she asked the Executive to reconsider the measure.

The head of the CEE announced a meeting today with the Minister of Energy, Antonio Gonçalves, at the Carondelet Palace, headquarters of the Executive.

She also complained of learning about the massive outages through messages leaked on social networks.

So far the Executive has not issued an official statement on the matter.

Meanwhile, president of Fedexpor, Felipe Ribadeneira, indicated that production, exports, foreign currency inflow, employment and basic goods are at stake, and therefore requested transparency and better planning.

Since last Saturday, 135 factories in the city of Cuenca, in the south of the country, reported blackouts of 10 hours and in Ambato, in the center of the national territory, 130 companies have been affected, according to local entrepreneurs.

Ecuador’s energetic crisis worsened in mid-April, with cuts of up to 13 hours in some places, a situation now prevailing all over the national territory. The Government says power outages varying, depending on the water level in the reservoirs that feed the hydroelectric plants.

Ied/ro/avr