Ecuador, the largest exporter of high quality roses to Qatar, is working aggressively to diversify its exports product portfolio to the local market.
As part of the export promote initiative, several leading companies, which are producing and supplying a wide-range of items, including agro-food products such as chocolates, coffee, snacks among others, participated in a one-day exhibition organised by Ecuadorian Embassy in Qatar, in collaboration with Qatar Chamber here recently.
“We have the largest varieties of flowers, including roses, in the world. In Qatar if you go to flower shop and ask about the source country, they may tell you that its coming from Holland or some other country. But it is not true. They are coming from Ecuador,” said Xavier Larrea (pictured), Head of Commercial Office of PROECUADOR, Dubai, a government entity dedicated to export promotion.
“We compete with many African countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya in the local market because these countries are also trying to improve their products’ quality. But Ecuadorian flowers, especially the roses, are high in demand in Qatar and around the world given the fact they are much better in quality and bigger in size due to several geographical factors,” he added.
He explained that Ecuador, due to its location on the equator, the country receives 12 hours of sunlight throughout the year. In addition, roses are mainly grown on volcanic mountains which are rich in minerals. And also high altitude helps them to receive more oxygen and direct sunlight that help roses grow bigger, making it more resilient to handling and longer life after cut.
Ecuador, the oil-rich economy, has successfully diversified its export product range as part of a long term strategy to have more sustainable development. Some of its major export items include oil, bananas, flowers, chocolates, cocoa, snacks, palm oil, quinoa, textiles, cosmetics, leather footwear, software, shrimp, broccoli, and other fresh and frozen vegetables in a long list of other finished products.
Ecuador’s flowers sector’s global exports in 2014 stood at over $691m, which was a significant percentage of the total value of country’s exports.
According to data provided, the country exported nearly 5 million tonnes of bananas with the total value exceeding $2.17bn, accounting for more than two percent of the country’s GDP, the second highest contributor after oil. Other major export oriented sectors include aquaculture (export value $2.4bn), metalworking ($431.18m) white fishery and derivatives ($330.36m) and timber ($278.33m).
“As a government entity we are trying to stop the export of commodities. Instead we encourage export of finished and value added products. In addition, some of our companies have captive customers such as airlines. Emirates airline has agreed to serve high-quality Ecuadorian chocolates to its premium passengers, and some of our companies are also working to have similar deals with Qatar Airways”, said Xavier.
Ecuador, the world’s largest exporter of bananas, have witnessed one of the fastest GDP growth rate in Latin America under the leadership of President Rafael Correa. Under his leadership, the country’s GDP has doubled to over $100bn in 2015 from $51bn in 2007, according to World Bank data.
After the global crisis of 2009, the economy began to recover and grew by 3.5 percent in 2010, reaching 7.8 percent in 2011, and continued to maintain a robust growth rate.
