Danilo Palacios also analyzed the current situation of the Ecuadorian corn production chain, how it will be determined whether the price should rise by 2025 and whether there will be additional imports to those ratified this week.
Producers and industrialists from Ecuador's yellow hard corn chain met last Monday in Guayaquil to analyze the new price of the product for 2025 and also the import quotas in view of the shortage of the grain.
Agriculture Minister Danilo Palacios told the local newspaper El Universo that there is a deficit of around 152,000 tons, which is why the import permit for 95,000 tons that was approved last September during another council meeting was ratified.
Palacios also analyzed the current situation of the chain, how it will be determined whether the price of corn should rise by 2025 and whether there will be additional imports to those ratified this week.
- How was the ratification of the import of 95,000 tons of corn analyzed?
The day we held the advisory council, I allowed producers from Los Ríos to participate as listeners. The producers represented by Adriano Ubilla were there. They were given information on our part about 152,000 tons (of deficit) and on behalf of the industry they speak of more than 200,000 tons of deficit; and, on the other hand, their position is that there is no deficit as such.
But at the table, where we spoke openly, it was said: let's see, if there is no deficit, where is the product? If you have the product, the actors are here; negotiate the product here with the actors.
Currently, the prices being paid for corn are between US$ 19 and US$ 20 (per quintal), that is, if we consider that the reference price is US$ 16.50, logically, in a dynamic of supply and demand, if there is less supply, the price goes up, then it is understood that there is less product, but I put it to them anyway: gentlemen, here they are, negotiate.
What Mr. Ubilla was able to tell me is that it is a question of prices, so what does it mean? What do they want to sell at the highest possible price? I don't understand.
We have the responsibility of ensuring food sovereignty and the balance of the production chain, because here, other affected producers are the protein producers: eggs, chickens and pigs; with prices of US$20 and more than US$20 (a quintal of corn) they cannot survive, that is one of the issues that also has to be analyzed and also so that the final consumer, the population, has the product.
So, based on the technical report and what I have just mentioned, we have ratified the authorization for the import of 95,000 tons that will arrive at the end of December and beginning of January.
- It was announced that another meeting will be held in mid-December. Will the price of corn for 2025 and the other import quota of 95,000 tons be discussed there again?
Yes, for the price of corn we have the space for it to come out before the first winter harvest of 2025, which normally comes out in April, so the meeting can be held in December or in the following months to analyze it.
There was also a manifesto from the gentlemen of Los Ríos, they had a proposal to set a price range of US$ 18 and US$ 20, in any case the current price is $ 19 and even in previous weeks they reached prices in the northern area of between US$ 21 and US$ 23, in the Tungurahua area prices of US$ 23 and something.
We are going to review it, we have to make the table before the price and we are going to do the analysis as we have always done, in a responsible, transparent manner, analyzing all the points and if necessary, based on the information, do a review of the price above the price, we will do it, it will depend on the information we have and the analysis we do together with the actors in the chain.
- At the September advisory council meeting, there was talk of another import of 95,000 tonnes for 2025. Is this still being analysed?
It must be taken into account that the summer harvest ends in December, the little that remains until December and what is January, February and March (of 2025) there is no product to harvest, those months are normally rainy seasons and the producer begins the winter sowing.
So let's wait, when the rains come in December, producers will begin sowing, normally the cultivation from sowing to harvest is around 100 days, so we have to wait three and a half more months to expect the first crops.
What does that mean? That in February and March we will have almost no product and consumption, based on the information we have, is 115,000 tons per month, so it will be necessary to make an additional import to what we are doing now to be able to cover all those months when there is no product or harvest.
