Competitividad de las exportaciones de cacao en Ecuador

Abstract

Abstract: In Ecuador the cocoa sector is considered one of the main traditional export products, in 2020 cocoa beans represented 11% of total traditional exports being the third most exported product, which is why the country has sought to insert itself into the international market more competitively. The objective of this paper is to analyze the competitiveness of Ecuadorian cocoa exports in the international market, for this reason the calculation of competitiveness indexes for Ecuador and its main Latin American competitors was carried out: Revealed Comparative Advantages Index and Balassa Index period 2015-2020. From the analysis it was shown that Ecuador presents an optimal level of competitiveness against its competitors, cocoa exports in 2015-2020 have increased their level of importance, but these positive effects are not enough to characterize itself as competitive at the world level since the country has distinguished itself by exporting cocoa in raw material which means having very little added value, ultimately the difficulties of this sector is the lack of technological innovation for the transformation of processed products.