While shrimp exports from Ecuador reached almost 350,000 tonnes in the second-quarter this year – for the first time in the trade’s history, and representing an 11% increase year-on-year, the third-quarter failed to break another record, finds the latest analysis from Shrimp Insights.
Q3 2024 exports stayed just below 300,000 tonnes, dropping 3% year-on-year.
With a drop of 3% year-on-year in July and an increase of 6% in August, it also looked like the third-quarter could outperform previous years. However, in September, exports dropped 11% year-on-year, bringing the Q3 total down putting the year total down on par with 2023.
With Q3 drops in exports to China (7%) and the US (19%), Ecuador’s exporters worked hard to diversify their export markets. Increases were seen in the EU (8%), Russia (108%), Japan (114%) and Taiwan (114%). This diversification of markets led the relative share of exports to China drop from 56% in 2023 to 53% in 2024, and the share of exports to the US fall from 19% to 16%. The share of the EU grew from 17% to 19%, and the share of all other markets combined grew from 8% to 12%.
Shrimp Insights explained that while the average value of exports to China has at best, stabilised since January 2024 – at around US$ 4.50, the average value of exports to the US and Spain (Ecuador’s biggest market in the EU) has increased.
For the US, it dropped from $6 in January to $5.69 in May but then increased to $6.35 in August before it fell back to $6.18 in September. For Spain, it increased from $4.58 in January to $4.75 in September.
These numbers make clear that the overall stabilisation of exports this year has stopped prices from spiralling down and even created some upward price development in some of Ecuador’s prime export markets, Shrimp Insights said.
