Rosselkhoznadzor specialists are heading to Ecuador to inspect banana exporters

MOSCOW. April 22 (Interfax) -Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) specialists will fly to Ecuador on Tuesday, where they will inspect enterprises exporting bananas to the Russian Federation, the agency's press service told Interfax.

The inspection will last until April 29. Considering that the volume of Ecuadorian bananas supplied to the Russian Federation exceeds 1.3 million tonnes per year on average, the main part of the visit will be devoted to familiarization with the quarantine phytosanitary certification system and the measures in force in the country that are designed to ensure the safety of supplies.

As Rosselkhoznadzor reported, issues related to the trip were discussed at the end of last week during negotiations between the deputy head of the service, Yulia Shvabauskene, and the Ecuadorian ambassador to Russia, Juan Fernando Olguin Flores.

Shvabauskene expressed concern about the increase in the number of cases of detection of a dangerous quarantine object for the Russian Federation and the EAEU countries - the polyphagous humpback fly - in bananas supplied from Ecuador in 2025. This may indicate the insufficient effectiveness of the Ecuadorian system for ensuring the phytosanitary safety of products exported to Russia, according to Rosselkhoznadzor.

In February 2024, in connection with the systematic detection of quarantine objects in Ecuadorian bananas, Rosselkhoznadzor contacted the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Ecuador with a request to suspend the certification of bananas from five exporters who committed the largest number of violations. After measures were taken to prevent contaminated products from entering the territory of the Russian Federation, certification was resumed, and deliveries were made under the guarantees of the competent authority of Ecuador.

The polyphagous humpback fly (Megaselia scalaris Loew) is a universal pest of stockpiles, has high fertility, including in closed conditions, in particular in transport containers. During long-term storage in warehouses, it infects many food products, in particular flour, soybeans, potatoes, bananas, melons, cheese, dried fish, mushrooms, ripe vegetables and fruits. The insect is a carrier of cholera.