MOSCOW, February 13Supplies of bananas from Ecuador are already being actively replaced by Indian ones; their additional advantage may be a reduction in trade margins due to a shorter route; Imports from Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia cannot be ruled out in the near future, said Oleg Knyazkov, head of the Center for Industry Expertise of Rosselkhozbank.
«You can rest assured that bananas are on the shelves. Russia and India have very developed, well-established trade relations and extensive experience in agricultural supplies,» he said.
Knyazkov drew attention to the additional advantage of supplies from India in comparison with Ecuadorian ones: “A shorter route will extend the shelf life of bananas, and also reduces costs, and therefore the markup.” And the quality of the products is definitely no worse: even a sophisticated buyer is unlikely to distinguish bananas from Ecuador from bananas from India, the largest banana plantation in the world, Knyazkov noted.
In addition, India may compete with another large manufacturer from Asia — Vietnam; this country also considers Russia as a promising market for banana supplies, the RSHB expert added. He also noted the prospects for supplies from the Philippines and Indonesia — “imports from these countries cannot be ruled out in the near future.”
Rosselkhoznadzor in early February asked the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of Ecuador to suspend the certification of five banana exporters from this country due to the fact that these products A dangerous pest was identified — the humpback fly. A little later it became known that India began supplying bananas to Russia. The first batch was sent in January.
According to UN FAO data (cited by Rosselkhoznadzor), India is the largest producer of bananas in the world: in 2023, the country produced 33 million tons of bananas, China is in second place (12 million tons), and in third place is China. Indonesia (8.7 million).