With the closure of roads, sit-ins and posters, hundreds of small and medium-sized shrimp producers seized several accesses to Puerto Hualtaco, Puerto Pitahaya and Puerto Jelí, in the province of El Oro; and Pedernales, Jama and Cojimíes in Manabí as part of the productive strike that they announced for this December 7, 8 and 9.
The measure responds to the claim of the producers for the price they receive per pound of shrimp from the packing houses.
Danilo Rengifo, president of the Association of Aquaculture Producers of the South (Asoproadsur), one of the organizers of the strike, assured that in September the packers paid around $1.65 or $1.67 per pound of 18-gram shrimp, while in the second half of October it fell to $1.22, and even went as low as $1.08.
Elimination of the diesel subsidy for shrimp farms does affect small and medium-sized producers, says union
Other unions that support the strike are the Border Shrimp Producers Association (Asocam), the Hualtaco Fisheries Producers Cooperative, among others.
According to the leader, the reduction of almost $0.40 per pound represents a loss for his sector of around $40 million.
According to Rengifo, during the three days of strike, small and medium-sized producers, who account for 69% of the 220,000 hectares of the national total and are 97% of the country’s shrimp farmers, will stop selling between 80 and 100 million pounds of shrimp. to the big packers.
The leader projected that this year the shrimp sector will close with $7,000 million in exports and that only until last October there was already an increase of more than 42% compared to 2021 exports, but regretted that the situation for small and medium-sized producers It is totally contrary to that of the export sector.
“People see the money, but people do not know the situation we are experiencing and the low prices that they are paying us and that we do not have enough money to be able to pay the cost of the feed, inputs, larvae and the entire production chain. that today the weakest link has just been broken, which is the medium-sized producer and the small producer”, said Rengifo.
Meanwhile, the strike also helped producers to reject the elimination of the diesel subsidy that the Government applied since last Friday to producers with more than 30 hectares.
“We have not raised a voice of protest to not sell our production to the packing companies, to tell the Government: here is the sector with which you really should speak, with which you should mediate, because we have not been called to a a single meeting to determine what the parameters would be to be able to qualify us as small or medium shrimp farmers”, added the leader.
Small shrimp farmers claim for the price they receive in packing houses and announce a 3-day production stoppage in December
He assured that the shrimp farms of less than 30 hectares, for which the subsidy is maintained, represent only around 27,000 hectares, when the total area is close to 290,000 ha, that is, that the shrimp farms of less than 30 ha only represents 9%. “So where is this subsidy, who are they really taking the subsidy from is the small and medium-sized producer,” she added.
Jaime Cevallos, a truck driver from Jama, in Manabí, assured that shrimp production is at risk due to the low prices they receive and the elimination of the diesel subsidy; and he requested the intervention of the Government to maintain the jobs that have been generated for more than 40 years.
Alvín Vera, vice president of the Shrimp Producers Cooperatives of northern Manabí and northern Esmeraldas, regarding the price of shrimp, assured that they have a downward difference of more than $1 compared to 2021. “If this does not change It practically leads us to bankruptcy”, lamented the leader. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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