Ecuador’s exports and imports decreased in 2023, and the Ecuadorian Federation of Exporters (Fedexpor) attributes this mainly to the decrease in oil trade, which reached 18%. But there is also an impact on the aquaculture and fishing sectors due to lower price levels.

At 28,530 million dollars, total foreign sales decreased by 5% and purchases by 4%, reaching 26,880 million dollars, in the eleven months of last year. There is still no full annual figure because data for December is missing.

However, non-oil exports registered a 5% increase and non-oil non-mining exports rose 2% compared to the previous year, although they are still losing growth. This has been happening since last July.

Fedexpor states that “the most influential factor within this poor performance is the development of exports from the aquaculture and fisheries sector, which has been affected by the lower price level so far this year. In particular, shrimp has seen 15 consecutive months of year-over-year average implied price declines.”

These are only two of the five sectors that decreased the value of exports the most between January and November 2023 compared to the same period of the previous year:

On the contrary, the five sectors that increased the value of exports the most are:

With the November figures, there has also been a slowdown in exports to China in recent months and this is an additional factor causing weaker performance in the aquaculture and fisheries sectors. Non-oil and non-mining exports to China recorded an annual decline over the past six months, from June to November.

The main markets recording the largest additional increase in exports are the European Union, and Fedexpor indicates that this “continues to be the result of the preferential access that Ecuador has maintained for seven years, thanks to the trade agreement, led by products such as bananas, shrimps and cocoa beans. Sales to Malaysia and Algeria also grew.

This is why there is concern. “What we have seen in the National Assembly these days, when the negotiated and already signed trade agreement with China, which even passed constitutional filters, could not be approved, should worry us. Unsubstantiated views (…) of parliamentarians who are against giving consent, noting that they did not negotiate and recognizing the importance of the market, do not want to approve it because the said negotiations were conducted in the Government. which is not theirs nor who they are against. Attitudes of this kind only demonstrate at the international level that there is not enough political will to undertake national policies that must be transferred to the governments in power,” comments the president of Fedexpor, Felipe Ribadeneira.

He indicates that Ecuador will be able to reassert the international respect that we need so much for the development of the country only when it is understood that “a minimum consensus on the primary and urgent goals of the country is the basis of political and economic stability”.