Thefts in production areas, armed attacks at sea, extortion…: In Ecuador, organized crime is damaging the shrimp sector, of which the country is the world’s largest exporter.
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One in five shrimp served on the world’s tables comes from the country of 17 million people. In 2022, the “red gold”, which accounts for 22% of the country’s exports, replaced bananas, another flagship product, reaching a record value of almost 7.3 billion dollars, according to official data.
In the first eight months of the year, 64 violent attacks and thefts at sea or on land claimed more than 50 victims in the country, including two deaths, according to the National Chamber of Aquaculture (CNA), which suspects under-reporting for fear of retaliation.
The loot is then resold in local markets or to unscrupulous traders who integrate it back into the export chain.
According to the CNA, which brings together more than 4,000 shrimp producers and exporters, the attacks “always occur in the same places”, namely around the Gulf of Guayaquil (southwest), in the province of Guayas, which is the epicenter of the region has become a land of violence related to drug trafficking, dismembered bodies hanging from bridges, prisoner massacres and even kidnappings.
In April, seven people were injured in two attacks within a day of each other. In the first, men armed with rifles shot at close range six shepherds who were leaving Puerto Roma, one of the hardest-hit towns in the Gulf, on a boat. They stole the cargo and fled by speedboat.
In the second case, the driver of a truck transporting shrimp was seriously injured after he was intercepted by armed men on a highway and the load was stolen. Theft also occurs in production areas.
“When we unload the goods on land, we are constantly on guard and try to identify risky places where we could be attacked,” a worker at the site told AFP on condition of anonymity. Area, in Puna, an archipelago in the Gulf of Guayaquil.
“The Navy patrols but doesn’t dare go near shrimp farms,” assures this 51-year-old man, including 25 in aquaculture, who witnesses an attack that he prefers not to talk about further.
For “security reasons,” Navy officials refused to allow the AFP to accompany them on a maritime patrol.
“We give in”
“Thefts don’t happen every day, but when they do, it affects a whole week’s production,” explains Kléber Siguenza, a grower from Guayas province.
Despite the installation of a video surveillance system, he fears a kidnapping, following that of a breeder in June in Duran, a town near the port of Guayaquil.
Shrimp farmers will spend $100 million on safety measures this year, making them less competitive with rivals such as India and Vietnam, according to CNA.
“We continue to be victims every day of crime that is better armed than the police,” emphasizes the president of the CNA, José Antonio Camposano, to AFP, denouncing in a press release the “total absence of security forces” in certain areas.
Edison Brito, president of the Chamber of Shrimp Producers in the province of El Oro, which borders Guayas, denounces the extortion suffered by companies in exchange for “so-called security.”
“We are giving in because there is no support from the Navy (…) We have no choice,” he assures, acknowledging his helplessness.