Amid rapid export growth, Ecuador is turning its focus toward increasingly adding value to the shrimp products it sends abroad, according to Global Shrimp Council Co-Founder and Gluna Shrimp CEO Gabriel Luna.
Ecuador’s National Aquaculture Chamber (CNA) recently announced the country exported 165,538 metric tons (MT) of shrimp in May, marking an increase of 9 percent year over year and representing the highest export total for a single month ever. The totals broke the previous record of 151,521 MT of shrimp exported, which Ecuador set in the same month in 2025.
Ecuador’s shrimp export value also hit a high in May, reaching USD 847 million (EUR 740 million), which was up 8 percent from 2025.
China continued to be Ecuador’s largest shrimp market, receiving 83,466 MT of shrimp during the month, marking an increase of 1 percent year over year. Ecuador’s second-largest market, the U.S., received 32,715 MT of shrimp in May, up 23 percent, while exports to the E.U. also ticked up 9 percent year over year to 28,512 MT.
So far, Ecuador’s shrimp export volumes and values have been higher every single month of 2026 compared to 2025.
“There have been two [consecutive] Mays in which we set a historical record. What happens when you set a record? You have to place the shrimp in different markets. For that … Ecuador is making a very big effort to diversify the plants … changing the type of product they make,” Luna said in his latest edition of the “Luna Shrimp Clip” video series on YouTube. “This takes a new investment and dedication. It is a new direction, a new way of exporting the product.”
Luna explained that for most of Ecuador’s shrimp-farming history, the country simply produced more head-on shrimp in order to export more; however, in recent years, the country has begun to realize the importance of the value-added market to both get greater value out of exports and find new opportunities in different markets.
In his analysis of Ecuador’s export data, Luna said that in the same year-to-date figures between 2020 and 2026, the country has seen an 8 percent increase in head-on shrimp, while headless shrimp has increased 24 percent and value-added shrimp has jumped 38 percent.
Even so, head-on products still claimed the lion’s share of exports during the first five months of 2026, representing 44 percent of the total, followed by value-added at 33 percent and headless at 23 percent.
“When we have a record month, we are still rely on exporting to China, and that means that we see a 15 percent increase this year in the amount of head-on exported goods,” he said. “[However,] changes are being made in the plants to be able to peel more pounds every day and, thus, be able to export a greater amount of added value in the future.”
As the industry continues to mature and serve new markets, CNA officials said they are hopeful the sector becomes a hub for investment.
CNA Executive President José Antonio Camposano told SeafoodSource in May that “regardless of all the difficulties that Latin America has in terms of legal certainty and other issues like changes of government,” he hopes the industry’s increased production totals, as well as his chamber providing structure for private governance, make it easy for any company looking to invest in the sector.
“Today, the industry has matured. I’m talking about the industry worldwide, and Ecuador is at the forefront. We think that it’s time for investment groups to take a closer look at Ecuador, a country that has an integrated shrimp industry and that reports corporate results,” he said.
