The first Russian bananas could appear at the end of the year

“Today we confirm that this is possible. Today the greenhouse is being placed. There is a program, we are implementing it. If everything goes well, at the end of this year we will show you the bananas cultivated in Russia, ”Platonov told the Minister of Agriculture, Oksana Lut, cited by Tass.

LUT, in turn, said that the Ministry under its control is willing to devote to bananas production if it is economically viable. However, he clarified that bananas are not yet included in the list approved by the Government of Agricultural Products that national producers can cultivate and process.

“There are wheat, barley, corn, apples and pears: everything we need for our lives. And hypothetically we can insert any product there. Now our producers are trying to introduce bananas there, ”said the head of the Department of Agriculture, cited by Tass.

Previously, at the end of November 2024, Oksana Lut said that Russia could begin to cultivate bananas following the example of Kazakhstan. In Kazakhstan, bananas cultivation began in 2023 with the opening of a 5.3 -hectare greenhouse by the Turkish company Gengroup Qazaqstan, capable of producing 1,000 tons of bananas per year. 4 million dollars were invested in the project. Since 2023, bananas in greenhouses are grown in Uzbekistan.

Ecuador remains the supplier of around 90% of Russian bananas. In 2023, the country supplied bananas to Russia worth $ 680 million, the general director of Infoline Analytics, Mikhail Burmistrov, told Vdomosti. In 2024, Rosselkhoznadzor temporarily suspended the supply of bananas of Ecuador due to the discovery of a humpback fly carrier of cholera. The restrictions were raised that same month.