Mexico Becomes A Strong Rival Of Ecuador In U.S. Marketff

According to a publication in the Ecuadorian press, Mexico is about to become a strong rival of Ecuador’s tuna interests in the U.S. market.  The absence of Mexico from the U.S. market  -due to the “dolphin embargo”- has created a possibility for supply from Ecuador in the past.

Nevertheless with the re-appearance of Mexico in the U.S. market, Ecuador will have to meet the challenge.  Mexico is considered an important force in the catch and processing of tuna, and has certain advantages over Ecuador. The proximity with the North American and European markets is one of them. 

The American producers like StarKist and Bumble Bee, that have several production sites around the world including Ecuador, also oppose to the Mexican competition.  They expect that the entry of Mexico will lead to a drop in prices.

Ecuador registered a rise in export sales with the fishing exports headed by tuna.  During the first ten months of 2002, tuna exports represented the 38.47 percent of the 210.3 million kilos of the total foreign sales.  Frozen tuna followed canned tuna in importance.  In first ten months of 2002, it meant a 33.49 percent of the exports of the seafood.  Between January and October 2002, Ecuador exported 159 million dollars and 80 million kilos of canned tuna.

The country’s canned tuna exports have been fluctuating over the years, to high and low.  Thus, while from 1997 to 1998 the export fell by 11.59 percent (from 69 to 61 million dollars), a year later, the number decreased to 42 percent. 

Nevertheless, since 2000, the tuna exports have shown a rise.  The foreign sales of Ecuadorian canned tuna is dominated at a national level by the companies Empesec, Nirsa, Conservas Isabel, Seafman, Inepaca, Asiservy, Spaglio, Promasa, Marbelize and Terdasco, according to the Ecuador Fishery magazine.

The National Fishery Chamber indicated that the canned tuna industry’s target for 2003 is to duplicate the exports.  In order to reach this effect and increase the national fishing fleet capacity, larger amounts of credits are required, as well as competitive interest rates.

Ecuador mainly aims to export canned tuna to the United States, France, Spain, Holland, England, Venezuela, Germany, Argentina, Chile and Colombia.