Ecuador’s National Chamber of Aquaculture (CNA) is calling on the government to halt trade talks with Brazil after the latter country suspended imports of shrimp.
On 3 December, Brazil announced during a meeting of its Ministry of Agriculture and its Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture that officials decided to suspend imports of shrimp from Ecuador effective 9 December. According to a report by S&P Global, Brazil claimed the decision was based on an inspection made by the Brazilian agriculture ministry of Ecuadorian shrimp facilities – though the ministry did not provide any inspection reports.
CNA Executive President José Antonio Camposano said the move was not unexpected to the industry.
“Brazil is the most protectionist country on the continent, this was coming,” he told Forbes Ecuador. “Historically, it has sought to block the entry of Ecuadorian shrimp with a series of excuses, all illegal and anti-technical, to benefit its local producers.”
This isn’t the first time that Brazil has closed off its markets to Ecuadorian shrimp. In 2018, the country’s supreme court accepted an injunction filed by the Brazilian Shrimp Producer Association to suspend authorization for Ecuadorian shrimp, effectively halting any imports. At the time, Ecuador was considered capable of fulfilling half of Brazil’s supply deficit of shrimp, amounting to roughly 45,000 metric tons (MT), as Brazil’s domestic industry could not meet the country’s demands.
Since then, Ecuador’s exports of shrimp to Brazil had resumed, and according to Camposano were growing, though they still made up just a fraction of the industry – roughly USD 6 million (EUR 5.8 million) in sales a year. That’s a tiny portion of the country’s total exports, with the country exporting over USD 441 million (EUR 428 million) in shrimp in October alone – a down month compared to years prior...
