Trade Opportunities

Ecuador depends highly on its petroleum exports, which constitute more than half of total export earnings. Nevertheless, Ecuador is one of the world’s most bio-diverse countries, containing several microclimates, which allows it to provide a wide range of products that are in high demand amongst North American consumers. Among Latin American countries, Ecuador is Canada’s number one cocoa exporter, making gains of 300% from 2012 to 2013. It is also the second largest Latin American exporter to Canada of fish, crustaceans, and molluscs, live trees, plants, and cut flowers; it is the fourth for edible fruit and nuts. As the world’s largest banana exporter as of 2011, 36% of Ecuador’s exports to Canada comprise of bananas and plantains. Another 14% of its exports to Canada are cut flowers.

Ecuador has a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to offer Canadian importers. The high quality of produce and year-round available supply makes Ecuadorian produce very attractive to Canadian importers. The most popular fruit exports are bananas, guavas, mangoes, passion fruit, papaya, and pineapple. There is significant opportunity to expand Canadian imports of these products, while expansion of baby banana, pitahaya, lime, physalis and watermelon crops provide new opportunities for Canadian importers. In recent years, Ecuadorian farmers have been greatly increasing their production of organic produce, especially bananas. In terms of vegetables, the most promising trade opportunities include hearts of palm, broccoli, and asparagus. Ecuador also produces various processed fruit and vegetable products which are available in several forms, including: dehydrated, powder, flakes, flour, jellies, chips and chocolate-covered.

Import opportunities exist for a variety of other Ecuadorian agricultural products. For several decades, cocoa was Ecuador’s primary export. Today the country exports a variety of cocoa by-products and is known as the world’s primary producer of extra fine cocoa, whose rich, one of a kind flavour and floral aroma make it unique worldwide. Ecuador also produces a variety of coffee and coffee extracts, including specialty and gourmet coffees, in the categories of organic, fair trade, and of origin. Other growing areas of opportunity include medicinal and aromatic herbs and a variety of gourmet food products.

Ecuador is the world’s third largest exporter of flowers and the second largest exporter of roses. Main varieties now available to Canadian importers include: gypsophila, summer flowers, tropical flowers and orchids.

Already one of the top Ecuadorian products sought out by Canadian importers, Ecuador’s tilapia, tuna and shrimp stocks are amongst the largest in the world. New areas of opportunity for fresh and processed fish include rainbow trout, and Chame fish; a sweet water farmed fish unique to Ecuador. All varieties are available for export in fresh, frozen, canned or fishmeal forms.

Ecuador’s talented artisans make use of an extensive selection of natural materials including wood, leather, ceramic, and a variety of natural fibres to craft home décor items and household furniture. Similarly, these natural materials are used to produce clothing, accessories and other household textiles. One of the most rapidly growing export sectors is high value-added forest products where the greatest interest to Canadian importers lies in balsa and teak wood doors, furniture, windows and floors.

Finally, the manufacturing sector in Ecuador has taken off in recent years. Ecuadorian companies possess the technical know-how necessary to manufacture metal components, machinery, equipment and related inputs for numerous uses. Likewise, the Ecuadorian automotive industry specializes in parts and vehicle assembly.

TFO Canada Export Offers

TFO Canada provides an information service for Canadian importers interested in sourcing products from developing and emerging economies such as Ecuador. This includes practical advice on sourcing from developing country exporters, a customized news bulletin including new leads from the Ecuador as they come in, and a searchable database for sourcing new products and suppliers. The chart below provides a rough idea of the number of Ecuador supplier profiles, available online with contact information through TFO Canada’s searchable Supplier Database.