Five provinces lead Ecuador’s sales and exports. In 2021 foreign trade recovered from the pandemic

The world needed more shrimp, more tuna, and in Manabí “we have those natural sources that have helped us bring in money. We did not finish coming out of the earthquake and the pandemic came ”. For the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Portoviejo, Diocles Valeriano, “It has been our own effort, starting to reactivate ourselves.”

The companies saw that the Ecuadorian market was not recovering and “quickly began to transfer more production to export, which increased especially in non-traditional, in manufacturing and there were the industries of Cuenca: ceramics, appliances, plastics, furniture and tires”. The executive director of the Chamber of Industries, Production and Employment, Andrés Robalino, identifies June 2021 as the point where the curve went up.

Local sales in Ecuador were $169,733 million and exports $26,674 million. It is a recovery scenario.

Compared to the pre-pandemic 2019, sales were 0.003% less and exports 22% more. And compared to 2020 there is a growth of 18% in domestic sales and more than 30% in those sent abroad, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service (SRI) used in the productive sector report prepared by the Ministry of Production , Foreign Trade, Investments and Fishing.

There are five provinces that lead these sales and exports: Pichincha, Guayas, Manabí, El Oro and Azuay together represent 86% of the total sold inside and outside the country.

1. Pichincha is first in local sales with $67,185 million.
2. Guayas adds $56,955 million in sales.
3. Azuay registers $9,336 million.
4. Manabí follows with $6,394 million.
5. Gold ranks in the top 5 with $5.328 million.

These provinces also lead in exports, but the location has changed:

1. Guayas is in the lead with $10,729 million in foreign sales.
2. Pichincha follows closely with $10,098 million.
3. Manabí in exports reaches $ 1,690 million.
4. Gold has a similar figure of $1,363 million.
5. Azuay follows although from afar with $224 million.

Each of these provinces sells three or six times more locally than it exports, except for Azuay, where sales in the domestic market are 40 times greater than its exports. And this is because of the difference in markets.

“Cuenca exports manufacturing, whereas the center of the country, the Coast exports agribusiness. A refrigerator is exported to Guatemala and the consumption capacity of that country is small, while bananas are exported to China or Europe, where the capacity is greater, it will never be possible to compare a basic necessity product such as food with a refrigerator , but for the population of Cuenca this increase in exports is very important”, indicates Robalino.

He considers that the effects of the pandemic have not been able to be reversed 100%, but there is a 90% recovery. Tourism has not been able to do it like all sectors and that has made it difficult for the entire economy to recover. “Manufacturers did have a fairly important recovery. The first six months of 2021 we were below 2019, however, from June to December we had a better recovery and that has to do with the vaccination strategy. The sales revival in December was more than 25% compared to 2019″.

Sales in twelve provinces of the country already exceed the levels of 2019, the pre-pandemic year

With 2020 they no longer compare. That year, adds Valeriano, “$30,000 million were not sold at the national level. Until December 2021, up to 80% of the sales that we had been having in 2019 had been recovered, not so in Manabí, which had been suffering from an earthquake. Sales tend to normalize in some sectors”.

But in Manabí, he considers that recovery costs more, since they have been trying to recover from the losses of the earthquake for six years: the commercial center of Portoviejo to date has not had an economic reactivation. Many resources destined for the reconstruction of 2016 have not been executed in works until now, he assures.

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The increase in exports occurred both in oil companies ($ 8,607 million) and non-oil ($ 18,092 million). And in total “they grew by 31%, a historical figure for the last ten years. While our non-oil exportable supply grew by 19.8%”, highlights the Ministry of Production.

“We have exceeded $18 billion in non-oil exports, which, if we subtract mining exports, the non-mining non-oil export sector again exceeded its record, adding around $16 billion in 2021, as a result of the recovery and expansion in the exports from various sectors, both food and manufacturing”, refers the president of the Ecuadorian Federation of Exporters (Fedexpor), Felipe Ribadeneira, in his analysis of the statistical report on foreign trade.

And it is that the records were also given by sectors:

• In shrimp, $5,323 million were exported, the growth was 39% in dollars and 23% in volume).
• Canned fish products reached $1,263 million in revenue, 8% more in dollars and an additional 2% in volume.
• Cocoa and processed exports registered $940 million, an increase of 0.6% in dollars and 2% in volume.
• Flores also had a record $927 million, a 12% increase in dollars and 10% in volume.

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Imports were reactivated by 10% compared to 2019 and 40% compared to 2020, standing at $23,829 million: $4,656 million for oil companies and $19,172 million for non-oil companies.

A) Yes the trade balance continues to be favorable to Ecuador at $2,871 millionalthough the non-oil balance is unfavorable with -$1,080 million, according to official figures prepared by the ministry based on data from the Central Bank.

Ranking of the 15 main destinations of non-oil exports from Ecuador

The main market was once again the United States, which between 2016 and 2020 ranked after the European Union. While Switzerland rose two places in the pandemic and now four more places.

1. United States.
2. European Union.
3. China.
4. Russia.
5. Colombia.
6. Peru.
7. Chile.
8. United Kingdom.
9. Switzerland.
10. Argentina.
11. Turkey.
12. Japan.
13. Canada.
14. Indonesia.
15. Mexico.

The first figures of 2022 are also good

Total exports totaled $2,456 million in January, an increase of 35% compared to January 2021. Non-oil exports grew 39% and stood at $1,690 million, according to data from the Central Bank.

Shrimp exports doubled to $537 million, grew 118%. Those of fish 60% ($31 million sold in January), but those of bananas registered $312 million, a reduction of 3%.

While imports grew by more than 45%, total imports ($2,345 million) and non-oil imports ($1,847 million).

These figures do not reflect the effects of Russia’s military conflict with Ukraine because it began on February 24. The Russian is the fourth most important market for Ecuador. In January, it exported $93 million and bought $38 million from Russia, and among the ten main products imported from Russia are fertilizers with an increase of 100%. (I)