Russia faces banana shortage amid spat with Ecuador over US weapons trading

Russia faces a potential banana shortage and higher prices due to a partial ban on imports from Ecuador this month. The move follows a political spat over weapons after Ecuador in January agreed to trade old Russian military equipment to the US for $200 million worth of new weapons, a decision the Foreign Ministry in Moscow called “reckless.” The US has encouraged countries with stocks of Soviet arms to send them to Ukraine. 

The ban may affect 30% of Russia’s imports of the fruit, which total $700 million a year, according to the Bell news site. Russia is seeking substitute supplies, including from India, the food safety watchdog said early this month, after claiming to have found pests in previous Ecuadorian shipments. 

Russia has targeted agriculture imports during political disputes both directly in the case of a 2015 ban on tomatoes from Turkey and indirectly through health and safety concerns as in the case of Dutch flowers in 2015.