Ecuadorian business interested in maintaining banana shipments to Russia - Russian ambassador
MOSCOW. Jan 11 (Interfax) - Ecuadorian business is interested in maintaining its supply of bananas and other products to the Russian market, and recent events in the country are unlikely to affect trade volumes, Russian Ambassador to Ecuador Vladimir Sprinchan said.
"It is impossible to say that the export of bananas to our country will stop. The producers, exporters, and transport workers of Ecuador are interested in preserving the Russian market, which is important to the Ecuadorian economy," Sprinchan said on the Rossiya 24 TV channel on Thursday.
He said that Ecuador supplied Russia with 1.3 million tonnes of bananas last year.
Even if there were delays due to recent events in the country, they "will not significantly affect deliveries and will be quickly compensated, and will not affect the huge volume of trade turnover that we have with Ecuador," he said.
There have been no difficulties with shipments of fruits from Ecuador to Russia as far as Rosselkhoznadzor is concerned. The agency confirmed data on the import of 1.3 million tonnes of bananas last year. In addition, 723 tonnes of pineapples were imported from Ecuador.
Rosselkhoznadzor told Interfax that in September 2022, the head of the service, Sergei Dankvert, as co-chairman of the Russian-Ecuadorian intergovernmental commission, held talks with the current president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, who at the time served as head of the Committee on Economic Development, Production and Entrepreneurship of the country's National Assembly. They discussed banana supplies, among other things.
Noboa said that Ecuador is interested in unimpeded supplies of bananas to Russia and the Russian market is important for the country, the service said. The discussion took place within the framework of the visit of a delegation of the National Assembly of Ecuador to Moscow.
Ecuadorian media is reporting that criminal gangs are causing unrest in the country after the country's President Daniel Noboa ordered a curfew due to the escape from prison of one of the criminal group's leaders. Noboa later called the situation in the country an "internal armed conflict."
According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), the bulk of bananas are grown in India and China, but these are directed for domestic consumption. Ecuador was the largest exporter of bananas in 2022 (6.9 million tonnes). Other major suppliers of this product to the foreign market included Guatemala (2.5 million tonnes), the Philippines (2.3 million tonnes), Colombia (2.2 million tonnes) and Costa Rica (2.1 million tonnes). The FAO estimates banana consumption in Russia at 1.6 million tonnes per year.