Ecuador Shrimp Exports and Current Situation

By Gabriel Luna*

Let’s review Ecuadorian shrimp exports up until July of 2024. The year started with 3 low volume months of about 200 million lbs in January, February, and March. Volume then picked up, from the uncoordinated coincidental synchronization of farm seeding in December of 2023. This is normal and happens usually due to the desire to harvest in November for exporting at a peak demand for Chinese New YEAR and to avoid having large shrimp in farms during December for security, operational and weather reasons.

Those farms harvests made a clear impression in Ecuadorian exports during April May and June where exports were 246, 275 and 237 million lbs. Yes, 275 million lbs is a historic export record for Ecuador, but when averaged with the other months of the year it really doesn’t mean we are having a huge year in production. In July exports were 215 million lbs and that seals the year for a tie in exports or small growth of 0-5% in exports.

What is very valuable to point out is the efforts Ecuador is making to diversify and export product forms that are appealing to other more countries. I was checking export countries recently and found over 65 countries where we had exported shrimp in 2024. Of course, the largest is China and our invisible partnership with them as main shrimp supplier and on the other side of it main market to us, is a joint effort.

Ecuador has shown our capability of peeling and adding a little value to shrimp in order to become steady sourcing options to retail and changing restaurant requirements around the world. These changes come from great investments in processing facilities, in making them more capable and adding production lines.

That in effect, adds freezing capacity to the country and here comes the catch, if you increase freezing capacity, but do not increase production, processors have to fight internally for the raw material in order to fulfill their new upgraded requirements. We are all aware that this year is not a very strong growth year for Ecuador, as a matter of fact the growth rate has slowed down under 3% at the moment and could very well continue with a low one-digit number.

We have reached new markets with product types we had not done high volumes of in the past, and are now not only competitive, but a reliable source for importers from around the world. There were many programs business’ that wanted to have Ecuador’s shrimp, but because of the volatility in pricing and availability when Chinese imports go crazy it was a difficult decision for customers. Today that has changed and is opening new and exciting opportunities to create and explore new product types.

The internal market in Ecuador is competing heavily among processing plants, who have orders to fulfill and ship for the next 50 to 60 days to arrive to China in time for the Chinese New Year. Due to lack of rain, we are having electricity outages which can be between 6 to 9 hours per day depending on the locations. This certainly puts strain on electric powered aeration, feeders, and water pumps at farms, but most importantly directly affects freezing capacity in processing plants.

There is no guessing or calculating when the outages will be solved or for how long they will last. What is true is farmers and processors are working extremely hard to overcome the difficulties this year has thrown at them and will continue to learn and adapt in order to become better producers and caretakers of this great protein we all love.