HAVANA, February 16. /TASS/. An Ecuadorian delegation will travel to Russia soon to discuss ways of settling issues related to supplies of bananas to Russia, the country’s Foreign Ministry said.

"In the coming days, a delegations of Ecuadorian officials will depart to Moscow in order to resolve difficulties that were identified six months ago, when the authorities of Ecuador were informed about phytosanitary problems related to bananas," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia’s agricultural regulator, the Federal Service of Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor), expressed concerns earlier regarding deliveries of bananas from Ecuador in view of the systemic detection in such consignments of a hazardous quarantined object for Russia and other Eurasian Economic Union member states, namely the Megaselia scalaris (Loew) fly. The regulator asked the relevant authority to suspend the certification of bananas from the five Ecuadorian exporters that had committed the greatest number of violations. According to Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia intends to substitute Ecuadorian bananas by boosting supplies of the fruit from Egypt, China, Korea and Thailand. Indian growers have also shown interest in increasing exports of bananas to Russia.