Bananas with May 9 greetings sold in Maxima

RIGA - The Maxima grocery store at Brivabas Street 310, has beenselling bananas with May 9 Victory Day greeting stickers.

The small sticker has a greeting written in Russian, as wellas a picture of the hammer and sickle. "Maxima Latvija" press secretary IvarsAndins said that these bananas were clearly meant for the Russian market, andit wasn't previously known that a portion would end up in Latvia.

"If it is not our merchandise, it is also not our doing ifthe provider wishes to greet people- Easter, orthodox Christmas and so on. Thething that worries us is that this merchandise was not meant to go to us andnot meant for our buyers," explained Andins.

The bananas, imported from Ecuador, surprised even theMaxima store manager who has since made it clear that the store is notinterested in such "commercial materials" in the future.

Despite the fact that the Victory day celebrations of May 9occurred a month ago,  Andins expressedcertainty that the bananas are not past their expiration date, but were in aEuropean storage facility to ripen when the stickers were applied.

"Latbana Baltic" imported the bananas which were purchasedfrom Polish firm CITMA. The bananas were imported from these firms as there wereno other options, explained Harijs Ilisko head of "Latbana Baltic".