Ecuadorian shrimp rebounds in sales in 2025, surpassing oil; expects to sustain growth in 2026: industry group

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ARCHIVE PHOTO. José, who works at a small-scale shrimp farm that sells to exporters, throws a net in a pond used to raise shrimp, in Taura, Ecuador

ARCHIVE PHOTO. José, who works at a small-scale shrimp farm that sells to exporters, throws a net in a pond used to raise shrimp, in Taura, Ecuador, on April 12, 2025. Reuters/Santiago Arcos

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Reuters

Mon, Feb 16, 2026, 11:57 p.m. GMT+9 2 min read

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Ecuador’s shrimp exports rose 20% year-on-year in 2025, reaching $8.4 billion, a record attributed to a temporary boost stemming from higher U.S. tariffs and steady investment in recent years, the president of the aquaculture industry association told Reuters.

Last year’s revenue level made shrimp Ecuador’s top export product, surpassing oil in a country whose economy for a long time has been centered on crude. In 2024, shrimp sales totaled roughly $7.0 billion, according to the government.

The tariffs imposed on India, the largest shrimp supplier to the United States, by Donald Trump’s administration affected Ecuador’s sales, since that country faced a lower tariff rate, explained José Antonio Camposano, president of Ecuador’s Aquaculture Chamber.

“That was a marginal effect because it only affected the United States,” Camposano said in an interview over the weekend with Reuters. “We’ll have to see what happens starting this year with the new rates that are imposed.”

Earlier this month, Trump announced that he had reached a trade agreement with India that drastically reduces U.S. tariffs on Indian products in exchange for New Delhi easing trade barriers and stopping purchases of Russian oil, shifting them to the United States and potentially to Venezuela.

Camposano noted that Ecuador still has China as its main shrimp placement market, which buys about 48% of its production. They are also working to sustain their sales in the United States and the European Union, and they are growing in the Japanese market.

“The United States has grown significantly at the moment, buying 22% or 23% in the last few years, and that is because the sector invested in order to generate value-added products,” he explained.

However, Ecuadorian exporters remain cautious about external factors for this year. Camposano says his goal is to sustain shrimp exports and, if possible, achieve growth no higher than 5% in 2026.

“Market performance varies depending on variables: our competition, which is very aggressive, and still the issue of the tariffs by President Trump, which creates some uncertainty in the United States,” he added.

Ecuador’s oil sector production has declined due to lack of investment and other external factors, with a 19% drop in oil exports, to $7.18 billion, between January and November of last year.

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Non-oil exports have grown steadily since 2023 and last year reached $29.4 billion, 18.3% more than the previous year, according to government figures.

(Report by Yury García in Guayaquil. Written by Alexandra Valencia, Edited by Manuel Farías)

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