Uruguayan rice continues to arrive in small batches weekly in Ecuador and can be found in supermarkets in January 2024, even from the last days of December, according to the president of the Corporación de Industriales Arroceros del Ecuador (Corpcom), Juan Pablo Zúñiga.

Although since last October you could already find the rice in different presentations of the Uruguayan brand Blue Patna, located in the stores of Almacenes Tía, which imported it directly and not through the industry.

The Uruguayan rice brand competes with the local one in the Ecuadorian market

On September 11, the first shipment of almost 400 tons of grass arrived, but due to the problems that occurred in the Panama Canal there was a delay that month, however, the industrialist said, the arrival continued in October every seven days. an average of 1,500 to 2,000 tons to complete the batch of 15,000 tons negotiated with Uruguay.

Last July, Uruguay said in a statement that Ecuador had improved customs conditions so that the country could export grass in a “total quota of 63,246 tons of grass, until December 31, 2023.”

The import of rice occurred after the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) announced a measure to protect the country’s food sovereignty on June 16.

Ecuador will import rice to protect food sovereignty, announced the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Eduardo Izaguirre

Zúñiga indicated that of the 15,000 tons, 60% have already arrived in Ecuador: between 9,000 and 10,000 tons, while the remaining percentage will arrive by the end of this month, at the beginning of December.

“This product is transferred to different mills for reprocessing, adjusted to the quality standards that are maintained for the Ecuadorian consumer, so the rice is not yet on the market. “We think it could come out in late December, early January, more likely in January,” he said.

According to the industrialist, it is planned for those months because now their priority is the national harvest. In addition, he indicated they were paying “very good prices” to the producer, between $50 and $52, well above the minimum support price of $34.50, he said.

In this context, he stated that they are currently processing Ecuadorian rice in mills and that is what they are marketing, while the imported product will be put on hangers for “the moment when there is a shortage due to the El. Niño phenomenon.” “, so that “it cannot be said that this import will cause any damage to national production” and that it rather becomes a strategic reserve that guarantees food sovereignty.

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

The president of Corpcom reminded that the 10,000 tons received does not reach the five-day consumption, because 90 to 100 tons are consumed on average in Ecuador.

Negotiations on the import of more rice – said Zúñiga – are in the process, which will all depend on MAG based on the needs that already exist. “What arrives from Uruguay is such a small share compared to the large consumption that exists in the country that it will be necessary (to import) and this is within the quota that has already been approved,” he assured.

According to the industrialist, it will even be necessary to see in the new Government and with the presence of the El Niño phenomenon, “the need to approve another contingent”, which must be analyzed in technical tables and defined by the competent authority, but he reiterated that the priority is absorption national harvests.