Banco Pichincha & Rabobank host international conference about shrimp

23 February 2022 17:47

The shrimp industry in Ecuador is booming. In order to spread knowledge and discuss the challenges and opportunities facing this crucial sector, Banco Pichincha and Rabo Partnerships organized a webinar this week to address the global perspectives of shrimp production.

The financial model helping farmers become more sustainable

Shrimp 2022: Global Perspectives, Challenges and Opportunities

The shrimp industry in Ecuador is booming. The country has become the largest producer and largest exporter of shrimp worldwide, surpassing India and other major producers. These outstanding achievements have been achieved despite the COVID pandemic’s negative effects on production and worldwide supply chains. With a production that, by 2021, exceeds 940 thousand metric tons and exports close to $5.000 million, this product has become Ecuador’s main non-oil export item and an important driver of employment and national wealth.

In order to spread knowledge and discuss the challenges and opportunities facing this crucial sector of Ecuador’s agri-food industry, Banco Pichincha and Rabo Partnerships, together with Rabobank, organized a webinar this week to address the global perspectives of shrimp production. The webinar, titled “Shrimp 2022: Global Perspectives, Challenges and Opportunities”, featured a keynote speech by Gorjan Nikolik, Senior Analyst Seafood Rabobank Food & Agri Research. Subsequently, a panel discussion took place with multidisciplinary experts including representatives from the National Chamber of Aquaculture of the Government of Ecuador, producers and exporters, and Banco Pichincha.

Rabo Partnerships has partnered with Banco Pichincha since 2019. The aim of the partnership is to increase financial inclusion, improve rural livelihoods, and professionalize food & agri value chains in Ecuador, as well as to strengthen Banco Pichincha in order for them to become the leading food & agri expert bank in Ecuador who can sustainably support these objectives. Rabo Partnerships does this by providing access to Rabobank’s knowledge, network and experience worldwide.

The financial model helping farmers become more sustainable
The webinar featured a keynote speech by FAR expert Gorjan Nikolik and closing words by Joris Timmers, Senior Program Manager Rabo Partnerships.

Knowledge and Expertise for the Food & Agri Sector in Ecuador

Banco Pichincha has made a strategic commitment to support the development of the food & agri sector in Ecuador. In the past years, the partnership has focused mainly on the banana value chain in Ecuador, among others by developing a value proposition, securing long term funding, and even cooperating with Bayer to train small banana farmers in order to stop the spread of the devastating disease, TR-4. Apart from this, Rabo Partnerships also supported Banco Pichincha by increasing their agri-finance capabilities, for instance through trainings, developing an agri credit risk policy, micro credit scorecards, and improving the bank’s product offering, distribution channel strategy and many more.

After expanding the scope of our partnership with Banco Pichincha to Ecuador’s main F&A sectors (shrimps and bananas), there is appetite to further increase the scope to other important sectors like cacao, flowers, dairy, tropical fruits and grains. Banco Pichincha’s wide presence in all customer segments (micro-finance, consumer, SME and corporate) offers an excellent starting point to address the whole value chain in each sector, leading to more sustainable food production, rural development and financial inclusion.