OREANDA-NEWS  Ecuador has provided a technical justification so that the Russian phytosanitary authority can review the restriction on banana imports, the country's foreign trade minister Sonsoles Garcia said in an interview with the Ecuavisa TV channel.

"The government of Ecuador wants to deal with this from a technical point of view, and we are convinced that we will be able to refute any arguments against the export of our bananas," she stressed.

The head of the department added that all the necessary documents were handed over to the Russian side. According to the minister, the first notifications from Moscow about the presence of humpback flies in products appeared in 2018. She noted that since then, the Agency for Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Control under the Ministry of Agriculture of Ecuador (Agrocalidad) has taken the necessary measures.

On Monday, this agency reported that "the humpback fly is not an agricultural pest of bananas, does not attack crops and does not infect them."

In February, the Rosselkhoznadzor, concerned about the situation with the supply of bananas from Ecuador, in which a humpback fly was found, asked the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of the South American state to suspend the certification of five exporters of these fruits.