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USA to receive first potash shipment from Belarus on October 14, report says
October 5, Pozirk. A vessel laden with the first US-bound shipment of Belarusian potash in four years is expected to offload at the Port of New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 14, Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing ship-tracking data from commodities platform Kpler.
Belarusian Potash Company loaded 30,000 tons of granular muriate of potash on to a Marshall Islands-owned ship at Russia’s Bronka port in St. Petersburg on September 15, Financial Times said with reference to pricing agency Argus.
Between 2017 and 2021, an average of 635,000 tons of potash was exported from Belarus to the United States, according to Argus.
Global availability of fertilizer has become increasingly short as a result of the Middle East conflict, which has all but closed the Strait of Hormuz.
“This shipment serves a few purposes: it acts as a political gesture amid trade tensions between the US and Canada,” Katsiaryna Shmatsina, Eurasia fellow with the Lawfare Institute, was quoted as saying. “On the Belarusian side, Minsk is heavily motivated to seize this opening with a major global power.”
Analysts remain skeptical that Belarus can rapidly scale up its exports to the US in the near future or compete with Canadian prices.
“The main rationale behind Trump’s big potash deal is calming down the base ahead of the midterms as well as calming down the Belarusians,” said Balázs Jarábik, partner at the analysis firm R Politik, noting that Minsk has been frustrated that Belarusian businesses were struggling to re-enter the global market after the US lifted sanctions.
Noting that the shipment represents a fraction of the 5.6 million tons of potash imported by the United States last year, Financial Times describes it as the latest sign of a “cautious thaw” in ties between the US and Belarus, which has been internationally isolated over its violent suppression of dissent and role in enabling Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
On September 21, US President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that the United States is “working on a massive deal with respect to the purchase of potash from Belarus.” “The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our Farmers and Ranchers,” the post said.
Earlier that day, Alaksandar Łukašenka said that Belarus cannot supply large volumes of potash fertilizers to the United States because its output has already been pledged to other countries under contracts for 2026.
On September 22, Trump told reporters that a “potash deal” with Belarus would benefit the Unites States and denied that it would strengthen Russia’s hand in its war against Ukraine. “Belarus has a lot of potash and our farmers need good prices and we want to get a lower price in Canada. We will continue to go with Canada, but Belarus would like to sell it for a much lower price,” Trump said during a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s High-Level Week.
Deividas Matulionis, national security advisor to the Lithuanian president, told LRT Radio that the Baltic states are not making concessions to the United States regarding the transit of Belarusian potash through their territory. “Any violation of EU sanctions would have a moral aspect, as well as legal and financial ones…It would be a kind of moral humiliation,” Matulionis warned.
Minsk and Washington have been discussing possible potash exports to the United States as part of their talks that have resulted in the release of hundreds of Belarusian political prisoners and the removal of some US sanctions against Belarus.
Opposition politician urges Kyiv to stay firm on Biełaruśkalij sanctions
September 29, Pozirk. Belarusian potash giant Biełaruśkalij facilitates the deportation of Ukrainian children from Russia-held Ukrainian territories, Pavieł Latuška, deputy head of the opposition transition cabinet, said in a statement addressed to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. The company acts …
