Part of the rice that the Ecuadorian rice industrial sector contracted to import from Uruguay has already arrived in the country. According to Juan Pablo Zúñiga, executive director of Corporación de Industriales Arroceros del Ecuador (Corpom), the first shipment of about 400 tons arrived on September 11 at the Guayaquil seaport from Uruguay. This first shipment is a “minimum quantity” that is part of the 15,000 tonnes that must arrive gradually over the next eight weeks.

The grass was supposed to start arriving in the first days of September, but was delayed due to the problems that occurred in the Panama Canal. For this reason, Zúñiga revealed, the rest of the deliveries will arrive from October 2. “Programming has been coming here since the first days of October. On average, 1,000 to 1,500 tons will arrive per week until the total batch agreed with Uruguay, which was 15,000 tons, is completed.”

The climate problem in the Panama Canal delays the arrival of Uruguayan rice in Ecuador

He estimated that the entire contingent that will arrive from Uruguay will be completed from the end of November to the beginning of December, although he warned that these times also depend on the situation in which the shippers find themselves with the influence of the Panama Canal problem. , which, in addition to delays, is also reflected in increased transportation costs.

Zúñiga reiterated that Ecuadorian companies have asked suppliers in Uruguay to try to work with shipping companies that do not use the Panama Canal route as a route, but through the southern part of the continent, through the Strait of Magellan, to avoid delays.

“We hope that the prices will not be affected so much by the cost of transportation; We will only know that when the product gets here, and we will have to meet these additional costs that are created, not only because of the increase in transportation costs, but also because of time, financial costs and everything that they cause. delays are beyond the control of both shippers and importers,” Zúñiga said.

This process took about three months, since in June the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) approved the import of rice, which ordered the import of 63,246 tons until December 31, 2023, after there was a shortage in the market due to the weather that hit almost 40,000 hectares of crops, which represents two months of consumption.

He added that once the largest rice contingents start arriving, the next process will be to transfer them to the facilities of the importing companies to process them and adjust them to the quality standards of the local market and repackage them to be on the market in order to normalize the supply at the national level. This will be seen on the hangers from the first days of October, Zúñiga calculated.

A smaller supply of rice and price variations are starting to be noticed on the supermarket shelves

The Corpcom boss assured that the 15,000 tons that will arrive from Uruguay by December represents only six days of national consumption, which is why he assured that “it will not harm the national harvest at all.”

“The harvesters guarantee and we invite the producers to deliver the entire crop, so that what can be saved from the field is delivered to the harvesters. At no time will these imports replace national production,” said Zúñiga. He explained that imports only serve to cover the deficit that arose in the first half of the year.

It is not excluded that more rice will be brought in to guarantee the supply for the first half of 2024

However, once the industrial sector finishes importing those 15,000 tonnes of rice, it will continue to bring in rice husk to supply the mills until the quota approved by the MAG in July (63,246 tonnes) is met.

“By importing rice husks, a rice by-product is also obtained, which is used as a raw material for the animal feed industry, for shrimp farms, for poultry farms, and even for the beer industry. Obviously, this is a transversal issue that would be achieved,” explained the CEO of Corpcom.

Farmers presented a protection action to ‘no longer import rice’

This paddy rice would come from the United States, which is currently in the rice harvest and could supply Ecuador, Zúñiga projected, revealing that there is no longer a possibility of imports from Mercosur, since the main exporter, Brazil, has closed its exports to the its food security and even started sourcing from other countries, such as Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.

Likewise, a spokesperson for the rice industrial sector announced that after meeting the quota approved by the MAG, the sector could start a new process to allow the import of more rice as a preventive measure against the impact that could be caused by the El Niño phenomenon. cause national production and be able to guarantee supplies for the first half of 2024. “From now on, we have to make assessments of what happens with El Niño to see the possible new quotas that are needed, thinking that we may not take rice for the entire first half of next year . We must take preventive measures and not wait until serious problems arise; obviously, looking at what is strictly necessary so as not to harm national production.”