Ecuador President Daniel Noboa announced at the beginning of June that his government would be eliminating a diesel subsidy for the tuna sector.
In a recent press conference, government spokeswoman Carolina Jaramillo said that Ecuadorian industrial tuna fishing companies should be able to assume the increased costs of eliminating the subsidy, pointing to 2024 tuna export totals by value of USD 1.6 billion (EUR 1.4 billion) and around 565,000 metric tons by volume – a 21 percent increase compared to the annual average over the last decade.
“This favorable performance shows that the industry has the capacity to support the price of the real diesel rate,” she said.
The cut aligns with Noboa's stated vision of allocating subsidies to areas that most need it, making the nation more efficient, and supporting private firms to increase efficiency, Jaramillo noted. As such, the cut has not been applied to artisanal fishing vessels.
Similar government cost-cutting measures precede Noboa’s presidency.
In early 2023, the government ended diesel subsidies for large shrimp farms in a larger push to cut oil subsides and steer more funding toward social programs for the poor. At the time, the country’s National Chamber of Aquaculture (CNA) said the cut was unfair and inopportune and that it would seriously affect sector competitiveness.
During Noboa's first term, which ran from November 2023 to May 2025, the government began to reduce subsidies for the sectors that most consumed gasoline in Ecuador in a move it defended as necessary to balance public finances, extending it to more sectors in his second term, which began in late May.
Ecuador’s National Chamber of Fisheries (CNP) and the Association of Tuna Fishermen of Ecuador (ATUNEC) have said the most recent government move will impact operating costs, international competitiveness, and the dynamism of one of the main productive sectors of the country.
The two tuna associations said in a joint statement that the entire Ecuadorian fishing sector consumes only 4 percent – and the tuna sector only 2.8 percent – of the more than 1.6 billion gallons of diesel consumed annually in the country …
