Shrimp and fruits strengthen non-oil exports

Non-oil exports break records, they have not grown like this for 10 years. It is an achievement of the private productive sector, despite pending tasks, such as investing more in technology, providing more added value and not allowing the security crisis to continue due to the contamination of drug containers.

The Port of Guayaquil, from where the largest foreign trade moves.

The growth of non-oil exports was 19.8%, and without adding the mining sector it was approximately 15%, while non-traditional exports grew 25%, Daniel Legarda, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, told Diario EXPRESO.

Both the authority and the experts pointed to the aquaculture and fishing sector as the one that pushed those figures up. The shrimp sector alone sold more than 5,055 million dollars in 2021, of the total of 18,091 million dollars that non-oil exports represented.

The achievement of the shrimp farmers was because they invested in technology, which also implied adding value to the product, being the example to be followed by other sectors, said Xavier Rosero, vice president of the Ecuadorian Federation of Exporters (Fedexpor).

The aquaculture sector even broke a world record. Ecuador produced a million tons of shrimp and analysts emphasize that it was due to investment in technology and added value, “and that is why it is the path to follow for other sectors,” said Rosero.

For the economic analyst Jorge Calderón, the pending tasks take years and also involve making agriculture more technical, avoiding droughts and floods, having high-quality and certified seeds, achieving greater production with less investment.

Other sectors that performed well and pushed the positive figure up were coffee, fruit, wood, flowers and manufacturing. The only sector that did not grow was bananas, due to problems in production and logistics.

From the point of view of Boris Aguirre, president of the Foreign Trade Committee of Amcham, non-traditional products also had a good development and within this are the uvillas and naranjillas as an example, which managed to be placed in new markets and in others they were exported. plus.

But the scenario may be different for this year without the adequate investment and without the solution to the logistical problem.

“For this year we do not have an estimate of growth, because we still do not have guaranteed supplies such as cardboard, plastic, etc., which are required to export. Added to this are the problems of logistics and security. If this is not exceeded, it is possible that the growth of 2022 will be 10%,” said Rosero.

The figures for 2021 would have grown more without the limitation of the lack of transportation and in 2022 it is a challenge that remains, Rosero highlighted.

“A solution to the problem of logistics in Ecuador is that we reduce the calculation of tariffs, in the cost of freight. In addition, we are reviewing the elimination of ICE in the payment of maritime freight, as well as the homologation of documents, so that there is competitiveness,” said Legarda.

Another option to the problem of logistics, raised by Byron Torres, general manager of HPL Apollo Ecuador, is to use charter flights, because although they have a higher cost (20%), “it is better than not sending the product,” he said.

It is estimated that there will be a break in the logistics part as of the second semester, but it will not yet be like what existed before 2019, Torres clarified.

The expert also highlighted that another way out is for there to be more communication between producers, cargo agents, exporters and importers, in order to ensure transportation in time.

On the point of security, Legarda said that the issue is not a responsibility of his portfolio, but that Customs works together with other authorities so that the cargo is scanned and thus avoid contamination of the containers with drugs.

Regarding the non-oil trade balance, this is negative (-1,080 million dollars), because more raw materials (50%) and capital goods (18.6%) were imported; but this was used by the companies to produce, said Calderón. He stressed that it is important to further strengthen non-oil exports, because the day will come when more electric cars will be used than those that use oil. So, it’s okay for the country to focus on selling more of its non-oil products to the world, he said.

The good thing was that the trade balance was positive at 2,870 million dollars. New trade agreements are expected to be reached so that the positive figures are greater, according to Calderón.