Ecuador’s Mines Just Overtook Its Banana Farms, and the Bananas Are Doing Fine
Ecuador · MINING
Key Facts
- —The number Mining exports reached US$2.634 billion in the first half of 2026, against US$1.873 billion a year earlier — a rise of 40.6%.
- —The ranking That puts mining second among Ecuador’s non-oil exports, behind shrimp and ahead of bananas.
- —The share Mining now accounts for about 13.5% of total exports, which themselves hit a first-half record of US$19.57 billion.
- —Bananas did not collapse Ecuadorean banana exports have grown about 8.6% this year, absorbing higher freight costs rather than losing share.
- —The two mines Mirador and Fruta del Norte are now mature operations rather than ramp-ups.
- —The counter-example Ecuador revoked the environmental licence for the Loma Larga project in late 2025, citing risk to water sources and Cuenca’s 2021 popular consultation.
For a country whose identity abroad is built on bananas, this is a bigger moment than the numbers suggest — and it did not happen because bananas failed.
Ecuador mining exports reached US$2.634 billion in the first half of 2026, up 40.6% on a year earlier, and in doing so passed bananas to take second place among the country’s non-oil exports. Shrimp still leads. What is worth noticing is that mining did not overtake bananas by outlasting them — banana exports grew this year too.
What is behind the Ecuador mining exports jump
Part of it is price. Gold has been at record levels through 2026 and copper spent much of the year near its own highs, so a producer shipping the same tonnage earns substantially more. In a first half where total exports hit a record US$19.57 billion, mining’s US$2.634 billion is about 13.5% of the whole.
Part of it is volume. Ecuador’s two large industrial mines — Mirador in Zamora Chinchipe and Fruta del Norte in the same province — are now mature operations rather than ramp-ups, producing on a settled schedule rather than climbing towards one.
And part of it is formalisation. Ecuador has spent two years trying to convert an artisanal and often illegal sector into a taxed and measured one. Anti-mining operations in the Amazon on 11 August seized machinery, fuel and drugs, following the destruction of nine illegal camps in Esmeraldas in late July. That work is connected to the export figure in a way that is easy to miss: activity only appears in trade statistics once it is legal enough to declare.
The bananas are not the losing half of this story
It is tempting to write this as one sector displacing another. The data does not support it. Ecuadorean banana exports have grown around 8.6% this year, roughly 10% in the first quarter, on stronger international demand.
They have done that while absorbing a real cost shock. Conflict in the Middle East has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, pushing up freight for Ecuadorean exporters serving Gulf markets, and for a shipper of bulk perishables at the far end of the Pacific, freight is not a rounding error. The sector rerouted rather than lost share.
So the ranking change is arithmetic, not decline: mining grew 40% and bananas grew 8%. That is a better story than the one where a traditional sector is being hollowed out, and it is also the true one.
Why the shift matters politically
Bananas are not just an export in Ecuador. They are the largest formal rural employer in the coastal provinces, and the sector’s associations carry real political weight, spread across a lot of the country.
Mining employs far fewer people directly and concentrates its revenue in a small number of provinces, mostly in the southeast. A shift in the export ranking is therefore also a shift in where the country’s foreign exchange comes from, and which regions have a claim on it.
That claim is contested, and the clearest evidence is a project that is not being built. Ecuador revoked the environmental licence for Loma Larga in late 2025, on the grounds of risk to water sources, invoking the precautionary principle and Cuenca’s 2021 popular consultation. Whatever else can be said about the government’s appetite for mining investment, it is not the case that anything gets approved.
What it means going forward
Ecuador is becoming a mining country faster than its institutions are adapting. The permitting system, the environmental review process and the security situation in mining regions were all built for a smaller sector.
For investors, the opportunity and the risk are the same thing: proven geology, a government that wants the investment, and unresolved questions about consultation and local consent that Loma Larga shows can stop a project after the money is spent.
For anyone living in Ecuador, the practical effect is fiscal. Mining royalties and taxes are becoming a meaningful part of the budget, which in a dollarised economy is what determines whether the state can pay its bills without borrowing.
There is also a security dimension that investors underweight. The provinces where the mines sit are not the provinces where Ecuador’s violence has been concentrated, but illegal mining has become a financing stream for organised crime, and the state’s campaign against it is a security operation as much as a fiscal one. That is why the raids and the export statistics keep appearing in the same week.
And there is one structural point worth holding on to. Ecuador cannot devalue — it uses the US dollar — so it has no way to cushion a fall in export prices by adjusting its currency. That makes the composition of the export basket unusually important. A basket weighted towards gold and copper behaves very differently in a downturn from one weighted towards food, and Ecuador has just tilted further towards the metals.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did Ecuador export in mining in the first half of 2026?
US$2.634 billion, against US$1.873 billion a year earlier — a rise of 40.6%. That is about 13.5% of total exports and puts mining second among non-oil exports, behind shrimp.
Did Ecuador’s banana exports fall?
No. Banana exports have grown about 8.6% this year on stronger international demand, despite higher freight costs from disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Mining overtook bananas by growing faster, not because bananas declined.
Is Ecuador approving all mining projects?
No. The environmental licence for the Loma Larga project was revoked in late 2025 on the grounds of risk to water sources, citing the precautionary principle and Cuenca’s 2021 popular consultation.
Connected Coverage
Sources: Banco Central del Ecuador; Forbes Ecuador; El Diario; Ekos Negocios; Primicias; Expreso; Registro Oficial via Lexis Ecuador.
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