Philippines: Russia potential banana market
Russian Ambassador Nikolay Kudashev said, "Last year, we celebrated the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. It gave an additional impetus to political, economic, and people-to-people contacts. For the past year, important bilateral documents in the field of elections, culture and sports have been signed or finalized for signing," he said.
Trade between the two countries reached $1.64 billion in 2011, up 15 percent from the previous year.
He also opened the possibility for Filipino banana growers to sell their produce to Russia following China's claim in March that it had found pests in bananas from the Philippines, prompting it to impose stricter regulations in screening the fruit.
"That could be a possible point of cooperation because we buy bananas from Ecuador and Central America. Those (countries) are too far away," he said.
Source: sunstar.com.ph
