The increase in banana shipments cushioned part of the impact of COVID-19 in ports

The increase in shipments of some exportable items such asbanana and cocoaIt prevented the main ports of Guayaquil from suffering, in the total balance of their cargo movement, the harsh blows of the COVID-19 crisis. Some terminals recorded increases in the tonnage of their cargo moved and others had drops, although not as drastic.

Contecon, concessionaire company that operates the Guayaquil state terminal,It states that last year it moved more than 8.5 million tons. The total cargo volume “exceeded” 2019. That terminal located in the south accounts for 42% of the port market share.

José Antonio Contreras, general manager of Contecon, states that mainly export cargo registered a better performance (4.3% more), both refrigerated and dry.

In addition, the executive maintains that factors such as the arrival of the largest ships that transit the Pacific coast of South America and the increase in ships allowed volume expectations to be exceeded.

Last year they carried out lifting work on 2 of the 3 mobile cranes, in order to receive larger vessels.

Within the exportable category, Contecon states that thebanana maintains growth figuresfor several months now. Other important products, such as cocoa and wood, also strengthened their export volume.

Data of theBanana Marketing and Export Association (Acorbanec)indicate that Ecuador's banana exports from January to December 2020 stood at 380.49 million boxes, 6.58% higher than what was exported in the same period of 2019. Most of that cargo left the ports from Guayaquil.

Contreras hopes thatBanana production and exports are strengthened between January and Maythis year and other sectors such as mining and shrimp farming will move. “We maintain the expectation that shrimp shipments to Asia will normalize, where there was an irregular variable last year, and finallystrengthen port operations with the mining sector of Ecuador“, indica.

On the side of the Santa Ana estuary of Trinitaria Island, where a group of private ports operates, cargo movement had different scenarios. In 2020,Guayaquil Port Terminal (TPG), the largest of the private companies in that sector and with the largest movement in TEUS (20-foot container unit), faced a decrease equivalent to 6.3% in the total tons moved compared to 2019. It ended with 6' 095,655 tons.

TPG, which has bananas and shrimp as its main export products, indicates that it captured 31.3% of the market share of the volume of cargo moved through Guayaquil and 27.4% of the market volume at the national level. .

During the past year it operated a total of 273 regular service vessels including additional unscheduled calls. There istwelve shipping linesthat pass through these facilities, part of which previously operated in the port of Contecon.

Carolina Arévalo, commercial export manager at TPG,points out that little by little world trade is trying to recover its activity and although it has not yet been possible to normalize the markets, they hope to see a tendency to gradually recover cargo volumes. She does not rule out that due to the current scenario there may be effects similar to 2020, where cancellations orblank sailings.

Bananapuerto,The second largest terminal in the Santa Ana estuary area of ​​Trinitaria Island moved 2,135,693 tons last year, slightly higher than the 2,132,753 it registered in 2019, according to data from theAssociation of Port Terminals of Ecuador (Asotep). A significant volume of banana cargo also leaves through these port facilities.

To the multipurpose terminal ofFertisa179 ships arrived last year. According to Asotep, these port facilities moved 1,506,265 tons, an increase compared to 1,298,755 the previous year. (YO)

68.95% of the banana cargo leaves Guayaquil

The largest volume of bananas is exported from Guayaquil. Photo: Ministry of Production

Of the 380.49 million boxes of bananas exported from January to December 2020, 68.95% left through the different ports within Guayaquil.

Data of theBanana Marketing and Export Association (Acorbanec)They report that 21.58% of the bananas were exported through Puerto Bolívar (El Oro).

growth was in the order of 20% in dollars and 8% in volume, compared to 2020. Until December, this segment managed to place $18,091 million in different destinations worldwide.Posorja Deep Water Port, operated by DP World, already appears with an interesting share of the exported banana cargo.

According to Acorbanec, 9.47% of the bananas came from Posorja, a parish that is in the jurisdiction of Guayaquil.

At the beginning of this month, DP World indicated that 163 ships arrived at its facilities during 2020.

The terminal, which has been in operation for 16 months, received huge ships in 2020 that tested the capacity of its draft. The vessel with the deepest draft was one of 14.4 meters.

Of 100% of the boxes exported from January to December 2020, the82% were transported in containersand the rest in bulk in refrigerated vessels.

The European Union (EU) was the main destination for banana shipments. That's where 26.50% went. 20.10% was exported to Russia; 15.62% to the Middle East; 9.70% to the United States; 7.01% to East Asia; 6.79% towards the Southern Cone.

Eastern Europe captured 5.59%; 5.53% went to Africa; 1.74% to the United Kingdom; 0.93% to Oceania (New Zealand) and 0.50% to EFTA (Norway), according to data from the banana union.