In Ecuador there has been an ongoing discussion about the exact location of the seat of the Chamber of Fishery (Camera of PesquerÃa) of Ecuador. For over 35 years this institution, which has Mr. Cesar Rohón as president, has held its office in Guayaquil.
Recently the Ecuadorian government ordered the seat to be changed to the city of Manta, which by many is considered to be the capital of Ecuador’s tuna canning and fishing industry. In the below article the Chamber of Fishery argues why the seat should remain in Guayaquil, and not move to Manta.
The basic question is: What is Ecuador’s most important fishing port, in the fishing and industrial sense?
Few know the reality of the Ecuadorian fishing sector, from which many have gotten to think that Manta and the province of Manabà is more important than Guayaquil and the province of the Guayas, within Ecuador’s most vital productive activity.
There is no underestimation about how important Manta is in the fishing sector. However, the city of Manta and the Manabi province have only centered their activities in the fishing of tuna; not like Guayaquil and the Guayas province, where all type fishing activities have been developed, beginning with the fishing of tuna, the sardine fleet, white fishing fleet, the production of fish meal, the fishing fleet to drag shrimp, the canning of sardines, the canning of tuna and of course the artisan fishing.
The National Chamber of Fishery is precisely that, an institution that represents all fishing subsections and not only the activity of the tuna fleet. It is therefore really incomprehensible and illogical to want to transfer the seat of the institution to Manta, under the false pretext of a greater fishing importance, when the activities in this single port are related to tuna.
There has also been mention of a larger presence of vessels and industrial processors in Manta, which too is absolutely false.
Numbers do not lie, and most certainly not when they are official.
From the documents and information provided by the Undersecretary's office of Fishing Resources, it is possible to see if indeed Manta and Manabà are more important than the province of the Guayas within the national fishing activity.
According to the official data of the Undersecretary's office of Fishing Resources, in year 2003 a total of 270 industrial fishing boats have been registered, of which 218 correspond to Guayaquil and the Guayas province. This means that more than 85 % of the total Ecuadorian fishing fleet is concentrated in Guayas, which -as opposed to Manta- has the greater fleet.
It is important to emphasize that the vessels of the Guayas are not just tuna boats, but vessels for fishing other species as well, such as, white fish, shrimps and sardines; therefore a fleet of several subsectors; contrary to Manta where there are only tuna boats.
With regard to the fish processing plants of the country, when also adding the number of marine processing plants to the list, it appears that the Guayas province counts on 65 plants of the total of 86, which means that Guayas has more than 80% of the existing fishing plants in the country, these numbers are really forceful.
Who Exports More?
The Chamber of Fishery also analyzes the exports in order to determine who exports more. According to the statistics of the Empresa de Manifiestos, which is a very serious company with many years of activity in the field of statistics of Ecuador’s foreign trade, 85,2% of the total exports in 2002 correspond to the province of the Guayas.
It is important to emphasize the productive diversification of this province in the ports for the unloading of fish, as well as in coastal populations where industries and infrastructure for the development of this activity have been installed.
Guayas is unlike other provinces that concentrate their activity in a single port; apart from Guayaquil, the province counts on other ports and has infrastructure in Posorja, Chanduy, Anconcito, Santa Rosa, Palmar, Monteverde, etc, generating work and productive jobs for 150,000 Ecuadorians, direct and indirectly. It is important to analyze the numbers with objectivity, enabling a real view to the dimension of the Chamber of Fishery’s representation and contribution to the national development.
Who does the Chamber of Fishery represent?
This official data, facilitated by the Undersecretary's office of Fishing Resources and the Company of Manifestos, clearly indicates that the statement of Manta being more important than Guayaquil is totally false and there is therefore no reason to transfer National Chamber of Fishery to Manta.
The original project, not the one approved by the Congress, was presented by the National Chamber of Fishery and clearly indicates Guayaquil to be the location for the institution.
It is unknown to the Chamber at what moment and under which circumstances the decision within the project to change the seat of the Chamber of Fishery was made.
The only thing this project looked for was the legalization and recognition of the Chamber of Fishery’s activities, not its change of seat.
The Ecuadorian National Chamber of Fishery was created in 1988 by means of Executive Agreement no. 38, during the government of Ing. Leon Febres Lamb and replaced the Fishing Association of Ecuador that was founded in 1967; therefore, this union has now 35 years of existence in Guayaquil.
The National Chamber of Fishery not only represents the tuna fishing industry and its boatowners, but all the other fishing subsectors such as the sardines fleet, the fish meal industry, the sardine canning industry, the frozen fish industry, the shrimp fleet, some craftsmen and several producers and packers of shrimp, that altogether represent 88 % of the total of the fishing export of Ecuador.
For all the exposed reasons, the Chamber of Fishery does not understand why someone would want to make the barbarism of destroying this Guayaquilean institution by changing its seat to Manta, when that city already counts on several fishing institutions, among others, the Ecuadorian Tuna Boatowners Association (ATUNEC), the White Fish Exporters Association (ASOEXPEBLA) and the Ecuadorian Chamber of Tuna Industrial Processors (CEIPA).
Finally, it is very important to mention that the National Chamber of Fishery is not a new entity, which has recently been created, but an institution that has already been existing for more than 35 years in Guayaquil, which has a legal function and a juridical position and must therefore obtain this respect within the laws of the Republic of Ecuador.
Source: Ecuadorian National Chamber of Fishery