More than a year later, the reform of the Organic Law for the Development of Aquaculture and Fisheries is expected, which was foreseen in the draft Law on Investments, which the Government sent to the National Assembly in 2022, and which was archived by the legislative body. in March of that year, he can be promoted again by decree.

From the aquaculture sector, it has been ensured that a project is ready that includes the securitization of land concessions for aquaculture so that those occupying that land can acquire it by paying the state a technically determined value.

The National Assembly rejected and archived the Executive Law on Investments

This was indicated by Oswin Crespo, vice president of the Ecuadorian Federation of Aquaculture Growers (Fedac), which brings together eleven unions of small and medium-sized shrimp growers across the country, and revealed that there are about 63,000 hectares of concessions, although he clarified that securitization would be voluntary. They hope that this decree will add to those that the executive power has so far submitted to the Constitutional Court: tax reform and the Law on Attracting and Encouraging Investments.

“The figure is that the concessions are securitized following a process similar to the one used by IERAC (Ecuadorian Institute for Agrarian Reform), later called INDAC, when it sold vacant land to agricultural settlers,” Crespo explained.

In the 2022 project, this reform is provided for in Article 122 and states:

“Holders of beach and bay concessions exclusively for aquaculture activities, whose surfaces have lost the marine influence of tides and tides due to the action of man or nature and therefore no longer have such quality or the quality of state property for public use, may request the Administrative Authority for Aquaculture and Fisheries to cancel the administrative of the act that granted the concession in relation to the subject area and, consequently, to request from the Administrative Authority for Aquaculture and Fisheries the allocation of ownership of the said land before payment of compensation. the appropriate value according to the parameters that will be determined by the technical regulations and according to the technical requirements established by the aquaculture and fisheries management body”.

Crespo assured that these securitizations would benefit the sector at a time when the sector is going through the “worst historical moment” for shrimp prices, as he indicated that they have losses of up to $0.20 per pound of shrimp since the pandemic.

Guillermo Lasso announces that the sale of land under concession to shrimp farms will be included in the project of the Investment Promotion Act that he will send to the Assembly

How would that benefit them? According to the leader, this segment that does not own land cannot access loans in the financial system due to the lack of guarantees, which would change when these hectares are registered.

“It benefits us, because those of us who have concessions are outcasts of the national financial system, since we don’t have access to credit and, even worse, the help that the government could give in the event of an emergency such as an earthquake,” Crespo said.