Russia turns to India to teach Ecuador a ‘lesson’!
Amidst strained relations with Ecuador, Russia has started buying large quantities of bananas and papaya from India. The first consignment of papaya and banana from India reached Russia in January. Meanwhile, another consignment is expected to arrive at the end of February.
Ecuador is the main banana supplier to Russia. But due to current geopolitical concerns, Russia has stopped buying bananas from Ecuador. In fact, Ecuador has decided to exchange Russian military hardware with high-tech American weapons. Due to which Russia has become angry and has stopped importing bananas from Ecuador.
Russian agricultural monitoring body Rosselkhoznadzor has said that exports of Indian bananas to the Russian market will increase further in the coming days. Which shows the increasing demand for Indian bananas in Russia.
India is the world’s largest banana producing country
Apart from banana and papaya, India has also expressed its desire to export other fruits including guava, mango and pineapple to Russia. According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Government of India, India is the largest banana producing country in the world.
However, despite being the world’s largest banana producing country, India’s share in the global market is only one percent. Whereas, India’s share in global banana production is about 26.45 percent with 35.56 million metric tons of banana production. India has exported bananas worth US $ 176 million in the financial year 2022-23.
