Ecuadorian officials will call on the World Trade Organization (WTO) to get Brazil to lift restrictions on its shrimp exports after years of being banned from the country for unsanitary standards.
Four years ago Brazil closed its bordered to Ecuadorian shrimp products due to disease issues. But since then the country has spent over two years developing strategies to minimize disease risk according to José Antonio Camposano, the president of the National Aquaculture Chamber.
"We have worked in recent weeks with the Foreign Ministry and the Vice Ministry of Aquaculture to strengthen the country's position and insist on national income that market shrimp. According to WTO rules and guidelines of the Organization Animal Health (OIE), there is sufficient justification for the application of this measure so this is an obvious trade blockade," he said.
The Chamber said Ecuador's shrimp could get access to Brazil's market of nearly 200 million potential customers.
Currently Brazil's national shrimp production totals about 100,000 tons of shrimp which falls about 30 percent short of fufilling its market demand of which Ecuadorian officials say could be made up with its shrimp exports.