Some 25,000 tonnes of banana traffic switched from being handled by Trieste Port to Koper Port. The Slovenian harbor decided to offer a ten-day period of free storage in cold warehouses to the goods handled by a Russian operator importing bananas from Ecuador to Eastern European Countries, including Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia, Ukraine, or even Russia's machines dispensing fruit snacks in schools.

The operation raised concerned reactions from the Port of Trieste. Walter Preprost, managing director of the Port of Trieste's fruit terminal, said to Trieste's local newspaper Il Piccolo that "we have been deprived of a big traffic of fruits handled by a Russian operator from Ecuador to Eastern European countries: a total amount of over 25 thousand tons of bananas per year which would have strengthened and made our terminal's future prospects more certain, as well as more work to do since part of the goods was due to arrive by container."

The counteroffer that the Italian port tried to make (two days of free cold storage), was not sufficiently good to beat Koper's one, which was almost unbeatable thanks to the state support the Slovenian port can enjoy.