OREANDA-NEWS The Ministry of Economic Development of Russia was instructed to consider a proposal to recognize bananas as a socially significant product. Izvestia writes about this, referring to the minutes of the meeting of the government commission on economic development.

The Ministry of Energy proposed to recognize bananas as a socially significant product within the framework of the working group on customs regulation and retaliatory measures in foreign trade. The Agency was also called upon to study the issue of temporarily zeroing the customs duty rate on goods and report this at the next meeting of the subcommission.

At the moment, the base rate of customs duty is 4 percent, but not less than 0.015 euros per kilogram. Recently, the volume of banana supplies to Russia has remained at the level of 1.3–1.5 million tons per year. One of the largest importers is Ecuador. At the same time, in April 2022, the cost of a kilogram of bananas was 115.2 rubles, and this year the figure reached 129.5 rubles.

"This proposal of the government, apparently, is connected with the desire to reduce the increased prices of goods, because bananas in Russia as "Doshirak" are a very popular product among Russians, very satisfying, high—calorie and at the same time useful," explained the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy Nikolai Arefyev.

Earlier, the government found a way to stabilize the prices of important goods. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) noted that the measures contribute to increasing the availability of these goods for citizens.