Coming off of record shrimp exports of USD 7.47 billion (EUR 6.3 billion) last year, Ecuador’s shrimp farming sector will seek to continue servicing its main markets while also looking to expand in key markets such as Japan, National Aquaculture Chamber (CNA) Executive President José Antonio Camposano told SeafoodSource.
Ecuador exported a total 3.07 billion pounds of shrimp last year, a 15.1 percent year over year increase. Of those, 41.8 million pounds, valued at USD 124 million (EUR 108 million), were exported to Japan. While that represented a 35.6 percent increase in volume and a 48.6 percent increase in value, Japan accounted for just 1.4 percent of all of Ecuador’s farmed shrimp exports, meaning there is room to grow.
The world’s three biggest shrimp-buying markets, China, Europe, and the United States, represented more than 90 percent of Ecuador’s shrimp sales abroad.
“But if you look closely, the rest of the markets outside of those big three have also grown - Japan has grown, the United Kingdom has grown, Russia has grown,” Camposano said. “This is about the permanent process of diversification. It’s important to understand that the context of the shrimp market is one. The big buyers of shrimp are China, Europe, and the United States, and of course Japan.”
“I believe Japan will be the market where, in the coming years, Ecuador will have a much stronger presence. Today we aren’t the main supplier, but we already have our eye on it. Last year we attended a seafood fair in Tokyo,” he said.
There will also be room to grow in the “dynamic” market of the United States, and added value will help Ecuador expand in key European markets such as Italy, France, and Spain, the Camposano said. CNA will look to diversify in the Middle East, and to take up technical discussions with South Korea, which severely limited Ecuador shrimp imports over a sanitary measure with which Ecuador takes issue. Last year, shrimp exports to that country plummeted 47.3 percent to 7.5 million pounds.
China has continuously been Ecuador’s largest destination market, taking up nearly half of its exports. The Asian giant purchases about 80 percent of its shrimp imports from the South American country “and you just can’t have 100 percent of a market,” Camposano said.
Meanwhile, Ecuador will also focus on fortifying operations at home, tackling issues such as sector electrification and public safety.
To bring a more reliable, steady supply of electricity to the shrimp farms, Ecuador recently passed a new energy bill that will look to free up the market for private investment in the generation, transmission, and distribution of energy. Currently, electricity reaches few farms located in rural areas, and the supply of that electricity is unstable; most operations are powered on diesel generators.
“In Ecuador the power sector was considered strategic and therefore only public investment was allowed. It has been absolutely clear that the model is totally obsolete and has generated serious problems for us - Ecuador has had recurrent energy crises in the last three years,” Camposano said. “Now, when the resources exist, a company could contract projects that generate energy for its own consumption, and in the case of surpluses, distribute those surpluses through the national public grid.”
Camposano noted the issue will be addressed more in the long-term, and that private resources will be able to respond where the country’s limited fiscal resources have been unable to.
“When we talk about generation, just about any type of energy can be considered,” he said. “You can contract hydroelectric generation projects, that is, small plants that supply, because the law allows for the formation of independent or autonomous energy consortiums, as the law calls it. Several shrimp farms with several thousand hectares can be gathered together […] The sector has considerable demand throughout its chain, from farms, processing factories, and shrimp packing plants.”
Solar can be used at Ecuadorean shrimp farms for specific issues during the day, but it does not generate sufficient energy to support the farms’ whole operations, Camposano said, and adding batteries to the project to store solar power can make operations too expensive.
Shrimp farmers will also continue in the struggle to combat illicit activity, he said.
“This problem is complex and won’t be solved overnight. It is a structural problem because Ecuador is affected by transnational organized crime, that is, they receive financing, operating locally and getting financed from many sources: human trafficking, illegal mining, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, etc.” Camposano said.
When security forces work to cut down on crime, illicit groups separate into cells and seek other ways of doing business, such as extortion or assault with sophisticated weapons.
“These smaller groups are the ones that end up attacking us, replacing the criminal gangs that attacked the sector 10 years ago. These groups are better organized and with more logistics,” Camposano said.
The CNA has permanent coordination with the authorities, and at the request of the shrimp and other economic sectors, President Daniel Noboa decreed a specific curfew in several provinces where there are indicators of insecurity. Joint operations have also led to the arrest of a number of gang members.
“This is permanent work that is complemented by the spending of the industry, which continues to be significant because Ecuador still has a long way to go to substantially reduce these crime rates,” he said.
