Livestock and vegetable products are recorded in the Agrocalidad registry. Companies share their experience in the process of obtaining certificates and opening up to the world.
Leather for footwear, clothing and leather goods (bags, belts, wallets) were the first line of business that Tannery Renaciente started in 1947. With forty years already in the market, the Cuenca company decided to venture into the production of leather for car upholstery and furniture with the aim of reaching international markets, which led it to meet high standards and seek certifications for the export of livestock goods.
Carlos Rojas, manager of the firm, comments that for more than 20 years they have managed to export their products and that among its main clients are Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Chile, the United States and Puerto Rico.
The company is now preparing to be able to arrive again in El Salvador, where regulations have changed and is already working with the Agency for Regulation and Control of Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary (Agrocalidad) to be able to comply with the parameters, something it has already achieved in Italy, where it has scheduled to ship in January 2022.
In the case of non-traditional livestock products, such as leather, Every company that seeks to export must be registered as an exporter of livestock goods and obtain the Zoosanitary Export Certificate (CZE) issued by Agrocalidad for each shipment.
The management of this entity is key to knowing the standards to be met, which will vary according to each destination country. Since 2018, about thirty companies have registered as exporters and more than 1,200 certificates have been issued. Only until August of this year, 293 were issued.
Rojas says that when he began his exports, there were no phytosanitary regulations like those that currently exist and that the usual customs permits and certificates were enough that were easy to obtain, but that this is constantly evolving.
“We cannot do it directly as exporters, it is a matter between countries, they are advanced negotiations,” he says.
Only so far in 2021 about twenty non-traditional livestock products and about fifteen vegetable products have opened the international market, according to Agrocalidad records.
Brazil, Colombia, South Korea, the United States, Honduras, Namibia, Peru, Paraguay, and Uruguay are among the countries that have received Ecuadorian livestock products, such as dirty sheep’s wool, blue cheese; bovine and buffalo embryos, bovine and buffalo semen; bovine, ovine, goat and pig skins; powdered milk, fertile eggs, butter and even the traditional Salcedo ice cream.
To internationalize this latest product, Proalbac, a company located in the Salcedo canton, in the province of Cotopaxi, has been working for more than six years in the production of typical ice creams to keep the tradition. Juan Carlos Balseca, together with his wife, both agro-industrial engineers, are the owners who have managed to raise the quality to reach the US market.
“In 2018, an Ecuadorian who lives in New York and who is dedicated to the commercialization of Ecuadorian products was interested in the product to take it to the United States, because there are many Latinos, many Ecuadorians,” says Balseca and says that despite to the interest that there was, at that time there was no homologation for the entry of products with dairy derivatives to that country.
Starting the process was a long and complex process, but the company had the support of its client in the US. The high standards that this North American market has, which Balseca describes as very demanding in terms of health and quality, have made them comply with good livestock and agricultural practices that include control from the milk and fruit suppliers that have had to achieve international certifications.
Proalbac ships 110,000 ice creams on average every two months. For this December 1 and 8, it will make the last shipments of this year, hence exports are resumed in April when winter has passed.
Balseca does not rule out exporting its ice creams to Spain, although it acknowledges that the demands of Europe are much higher than those of the US, but stresses that they are already working on some adjustments to try to enter that market again.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen Ecuadorian vegetable products, such as flowers, cut foliage, rice, teak, lemon, grains, chili, mango, sweet potato, fruits, vegetables, wood, and basil, are also opening up the international market in countries such as Bangladesh. , Curaçao, Georgia, Macedonia, Nigeria, Singapore, United Kingdom and Saint Vincent.
To reach these destinations, It is mandatory to have the Phytosanitary Export Certificate (CFE), also issued by Agrocalidad through the Coordination of Plant Health. Some 33,000 are issued monthly and, like the CZE, are generated for each shipment by the hand of a previous inspection that verifies from production to shipment.
Dennis Brito, CEO of Golden Sweet Spirit, for 22 years has worked in the development of the value chain of the grape for export, known in other countries as uchuva, aguaymanto, golden berry and physalis.
Canada, USA, Germany, England, Holland, France, Spain are the main countries to which they have managed to take the product, however it was not an easy task, Brito comments that it took them many years and that it was a joint effort with the respective control entities.
In the case of vegetable products, the North American market is one of the most complex to enter, says Brito. He began the process more than 16 years ago and at that time he could not do it since in the US fresh fruit from Ecuador was prohibited due to the fly plague.
The United States required Ecuador to have zones that are free or of low prevalence of fruit flies. Golden Sweet Spirit was monitored for up to 48 months in existing crops and in 2019 it completed the opening of that market.
“It was a super tough challenge, but we took it, it took time, experts from the USA came to see the progress and when everything was verified to be correct we received permission, it was the longest but most appropriate way, it was a milestone for Ecuador’s agriculture ”, he says.
The company -based in Shungourko, in the Mejía canton, south of Pichincha- exports 1,200,000 kilos per year of uvillas, a product that has the advantage of not being seasonal. Now it seeks to take it to Chile, but several studies are missing, such as the one on pest risk. Brazil, Argentina are two new markets that it hopes to reach in the short term.
The three entrepreneurs recognize that reaching an international market with Ecuadorian products is not something that is achieved once and is maintained. They agree that it can be lost if it is not constantly updated. They highlight the status that the country has achieved with the national standards and established regulations that put it at the level of the demand of the US and European markets. (I)
Export figures for non-traditional products
From January to September this year $ 4,213 million have been registered in exports of non-traditional products, according to the latest statistical report on foreign trade issued by the Ecuadorian Federation of Exporters (Fedexpor). The main products that are reaching international markets are vegetable oils, other fruits; wood and processed, flowers and canned fish. Non-traditional exports increased by 22% compared to the same period in 2020, according to the report.
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