Shrimp emerged as the country’s top export product in the January-to-July period, generating $5.766 billion in revenue, up 17.6 percent from a year earlier. For the first time, the crustacean surpassed total oil exports, which amounted to $5.724 billion and rose 27.3 percent. Mining products ranked third with $3.180 billion in sales, a 43.5 percent increase, while banana and plantain shipments contributed $2.740 billion, up 7.5 percent. Cocoa and elaborated products fell sharply, totaling $1.196 billion, down 54.6 percent on an annual basis.
July alone saw exports reach $3.718 billion, a sequential gain of 13.2 percent over June and a 48.5 percent jump compared to July 2025. The monthly trade balance swung to a surplus of $504.4 million from a deficit of $257 million a year earlier. Shrimp exports in July hit $1.068 billion, surging 64.4 percent year-on-year, while mining products climbed 59.4 percent to $545.3 million.
Imports in July totaled $3.214 billion, rising 16.4 percent from the previous year. Fuels and lubricants posted the steepest gain, up 35.4 percent, and accounted for $5.373 billion of total imports in the seven-month period, an increase of 35.3 percent.
Juan David Espinosa, a business school instructor at Universidad Internacional del Ecuador, noted that the performance of shrimp and mining demonstrates those sectors’ ability to sustain foreign-exchange inflows and expand their share of Ecuador’s export mix. Fernando Larrea Estrada, president of the Colegio de Economistas de Pichincha, emphasized that household-level benefits depend on whether higher export activity converts into production, employment, and wage support. The transmission mechanism linking trade surpluses to purchasing power remains contingent on how much export income circulates domestically, funds supplier networks, and creates jobs beyond the immediate export operations.
Non-oil exports for the January-July span totaled $17.565 billion, rising 4.4 percent, while oil exports advanced 27.3 percent. The disparity between export and import growth rates signals tightening liquidity conditions in a dollarized economy where foreign sales represent a principal channel for dollar inflows.
This article was curated and published as part of our South American energy market coverage.
