Russia has started buying bananas from India after a spat with its biggest supplier Ecuador over the latter’s decision to swap Russian-made military hardware with the US.
The first batch of bananas from India was shipped to Russia in January and the next is planned for the end of February, Reuters reported citing, Russian watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor. It added that “the volume of exports of Indian bananas to the Russian market will increase.”
India, a major banana producer, has also expressed interest in supplying other fruit such as mangoes, pineapples, papaya and guava to the Russian market, Rosselkhoznadzor said. Last week, banana imports from five Ecuadorian companies were suspended, saying it had detected pests in their products.
Ecuador’s food safety agency said on Tuesday only 0.3% of banana shipments to Russia were found to contain insects and didn’t pose a risk, according to Ecuadorian media reports. The suspensions came after Moscow condemned a pact under which Ecuador will hand over Russian-made military hardware, dubbed by Ecuador as “Ukrainian and Russian scrap metal,” to the United States in exchange for advanced US equipment worth $200 million.
The US has said the arms from Ecuador would help Ukraine bolster its forces on the battlefield against Russia. Russia’s trade ties with India have deepened since 2022, when Western countries imposed sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine conflict, forcing it to seek greater trade with other non-Western countries.
Russia was the largest importer of Ecuadorian bananas in 2022, and Ecuador supplied 20-25 percent of its yearly banana exports to Russia before the 2022 invasion, according to the FAO. Russian authorities have not explicitly linked the Indian banana import decision with the US-Ecuador deal. However, some media reports say that Moscow has a history of restricting food imports from countries with which it has disputes.
(With agency inputs)
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