The United States remains the top destination country for Ecuadorian cocoa in 2022, while some Asian countries were a big surprise for the sector, which closed last year with total exports of 414,721 tons.

This is equivalent to a contribution of more than 1.081 million dollars in foreign currency and a growth of 14.97% compared to 2021, according to Merlyn Casanova, executive director of the National Association of Cocoa Exporters of Ecuador (Anecacao).

The executive states that in 2022, the United States continued to lead as the main export destination in the sector, with more than 82,423 tons – $163 million, according to the Ecuadorian Federation of Exporters (Fedexpor) -, despite a 1.8% decrease in the volume shipped in compared to 2021. However, as an economic bloc, the European Union, which is made up of 27 countries, was the top destination for cocoa exports with $241 million, although also with a 5% decline in value and a negligible increase in volume of 0.10%.

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After the United States, as a country, are Malaysia and Indonesia, these Asian countries have become a very important market for the development of Ecuadorian cacao, according to Casanova, they currently represent 18% and 16.5% of the total shipments of the sector, with an export level growth of 89% and 7 % compared to 2021.

Figures from FedExpor highlighted that shipments to Malaysia totaled about $168 million, surpassing the United States in foreign currency.

However, the executive director of Anecacao warns that the good result of exports is not correlated with the final profit obtained by export companies and manufacturers, as she assures that they were forced to invest more and more in security, bear logistics costs as a result of COVID-19 and high input prices as a result of the Russian – the Ukrainian war.

“During 2022, the Ecuadorian cocoa export sector was seriously affected by organized crime and insecurity, which generates more and more efforts by the export sector to hire security and surveillance systems for the proper transfer of cargo to the port; and fear in producers before possible attacks,” says Casanova, who adds the political crisis in the country last June that reduced the levels of cocoa shipments to the port and made it difficult to buy and sell cocoa because of the lack of security guarantees on the routes.

In the same way, the war between Russia and Ukraine implied an increase in the prices of fertilizers used by producers for their crops, and climate change together with the appearance of cacao disease affected their production, adds the leader, who assures that it is urgently necessary for the government to adopt a competitiveness plan, specifying various commercial openings, lack automatically and incentives are created both in the production part and in exports that enable the maintenance of the economy of export companies and producers in the face of various problems that affect them.

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As for expectations for this year, Casanova is optimistic, pointing out that the sector has the capacity to increase production and exports by more than 430,000 metric tons, but this will depend on the actions taken by the government to support the sector.

On the part of the sector, on the other hand, Casanova assures that as an Association they actively participate in the working groups of the sector and in cooperation with other business and production unions, in order to establish actions that enable alleviating the problems of production, safety, commercialization, quality and promotion.

In addition, Anecacao seeks to continue with the integration of the sector and the promotion of the cocoa tree, for which they foresee the second edition of the Chokao fair, from July 18 to 20 in Guayaquil, where more than 80 companies and more than 3,000 domestic and foreign visitors related to the sector will participate .