Ecuador has managed to position itself as the world’s leading shrimp producer, surpassing giants in this sector, such as China and India.
Ecuador’s shrimp sector seeks to maintain its position as the world’s leading producer and one of the largest exporters. To achieve this goal, companies in the sector are injecting more capital.
The volume of credit allocated to shrimp and laboratory activities and to the wholesale sale of crustaceans amounts to USD 435 million in the first quarter of 2022.
Petro, the former guerrilla who sought the Presidency of Colombia three times
That equates to a 82% increase in credit volume compared to the first three months of 2021 when USD 239 million were disbursed.
This is supported by a report by the consulting firm Oikonomics and the Economic Research Institute of the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE).
“The increase in the volume of credit in the shrimp sector is due to a greater need for financing, due to the increase in investment contracts“, assures the report.
According to Francisco Varas, Regional Manager of Banco Internacional, the most of the financing accessed by the shrimp sector is destined to:
- Acquisitions of hectares for shrimp farming.
- Technification of processes, such as automatic feeding.
- Expansion of the capacity of export plants.
investment and improvement of technology in research have boosted the productivity of the aquaculture sector, says David Chicaiza, a researcher at the Public Institute for Aquaculture and Fisheries Research.
Higher demand, better price
The national shrimp sector, like the international one, invests more in order to increase its productivity, in response to a increasing demand.
“The shrimp is substituting for other proteins“, explains Kléber Pontón, manager of the shrimp farm La Pantera.
The reason is that the shrimp has a good yield; that is, in a small space more is produced.
“One hectare of land is needed to produce 1,000 kilograms of beef in two years. On the other hand, with the new technologies, one hectare is needed to produce 50,000 kilograms of shrimp in three months,” says Pontón.
Higher demand for shrimp is pushing a increase in its price.
The international price of the pound of shrimp reached $14.96 in March 2022, according to Oikonomics. That equates to a 7% increase from the same month in 2021.
In the Local market, the pound of shrimp reached USD 2,95 in March 2022, that’s equal to a 17% hike compared to the same month of the previous year.
Large producer and exporter
Driven by investment, Ecuador’s shrimp sector has positioned itself as the world’s largest producersurpassing giants like China and India.
Local shrimp production reached one million tons in 2021.
This is because in the last seven years the production of the shrimp sector has grown at a average annual rate of 16%according to Oikonomics and the PUCE.
With increased production, the country has managed to reach more than 40 countries.
Las Shrimp exports totaled USD 5,323 million in 2021, which means a growth in value of 39% compared to 2020, according to the Central Bank.
And, shrimp exports amounted to USD 2,387 million in the first four months of 2022. That is equivalent to a increase in value of 79% compared to the same period in 2021.
In this context, the projection of Oikonomics and the PUCE is that the production and exports of the shrimp sector keep up the upward trend in 2022.
The Central Bank projects that the gross value added of the aquaculture and shrimp fishing will grow 3.7% in 2022.
The good performance recorded by the Ecuadorian shrimp sector has come to “impress”, as stated by Gorjan Nikolik, an analyst at the financial institution Rabobank, during the presentation of the Global Aquaculture Production Survey.