Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Transportation are calling on the European Commission to expand sanctions against Belarus to include Belarusian urea after a crackdown on sanctions’ evasion schemes.
The Lithuanian government is also considering a ban on all rail shipments from Belarus, as well as from Russia.
The moves follow the seizure by Lithuanian authorities of “thousands of tonnes” of Belarusian urea that had entered Lithuania on trains that were headed for the port of Klaipėda, according to a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
The destination in the port, according to the report, was Biriu Kroviniu Terminalas (BKT). Belarusian potash producers own a 30% stake in BKT, which operates a large terminal in Klaipėda port and specializes in fertilizer handling. Up to the end of January 2022, the terminal was moving thousands of tons of Belarusian potash.
But Belarus has not been able to export potash via Klaipėda since Feb. 1, 2022, after Lithuania’s government terminated the railway transit contract between the country’s state-owned railway company Lietuvos Geležinkeliai’s (LTG) and Belarus’ state-owned potash producer Belaruskali OAO over national security concerns (GM Jan. 14, 2022).
The Lithuanian decision came in the wake of European Union (EU) and US sectoral sanctions on Belarus, which included a ban on the trading and transit of potash, as well as a raft of sanctions on Belarusian companies, including Belaruskali and its marketing/export arm Belarusian Potash Co. (BPC), and Belarus’ sole urea producer, Grodno Azot.
According to the OCCRP report, trucks have also reportedly been involved in transporting Belarusian urea through Lithuania for eastern destinations, including to Serbia in at least one instance.
Lithuania made the seizures and tightened control measures along its 679-kilometer border with Belarus after two OCCRP member centers exposed the sanctions evasion.
While the EU put Grodno Azot under sanctions in 2021, which prohibits EU companies from doing business with the producer, the ban does not prohibit Belarusian urea from being imported into the EU, “a fact quickly made use of by persons in at least three countries,” the OCCRP report said.
Grodno Azot has production capacity for some 1.18 million mt/y of urea, according to the Green Markets database, and exported 229,031 mt of urea in 2020, according to the most recent data available from Trade Data Monitor.