Belarus this week claimed to have signed a decree “on export” related to potash, according to reports citing the pravo.by portal. However, no further details were outlined, as according to pravo.by, the text of two out of the six paragraphs of the document are “for official use” and not disclosed.
References to JSC Belarusian Potash Co. (BPC), the marketer and exporter of Belarusian potash, and the regulation of exports of potash fertilizers, are made in the document.
Belarus’ government has been instructed to take measures to implement the decree, but the exact meaning of the document is unclear.
Reports were circulating last month that Indian Potash Ltd. (IPL), India’s biggest potash importer, was in talks to buy 1 million mt of potash from Belarus in 2022 by paying with rupees, according to a Reuters report, citing two unidentified Indian officials (GM Feb. 4, p. 1). Sanctions imposed by the U.S. and European Union (E.U.) on Belarus restrict Belarus’ potash trade in U.S. dollars and euros.
IPL late last month reportedly asked BPC to disclose which ports it will use for shipments before it would sign a new potash supply deal with the company this year, according to a Bloomberg report, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter (GM Feb. 25, p. 31).
India was one of the countries to abstain at the United Nations Security Council and the General Assembly from votes to deplore Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Belarus claims it will have its own ports on the Russian Coast of the Baltic Sea in two years, according to a report by Belarusian state news agency BelTA, quoting Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on March 5.
Lukashenko said the ports would be built there in two years, and Belarus will handle its cargoes through “our ports there.”
He last month claimed Belarus was implementing “a project to increase port capacities for the transshipment of potash in Russia,” and intended to “complete it as soon as possible” (GM Feb. 11, p. 1).