EU export sanctions sidestep Belarus’ primary potash fertilizer grade

LONDON (ICIS)–Sanctions imposed on Belarus’s muriate of potash (MOP) fertilizer exports by the EU last week appear unlikely to affect state mining firm Belaruskali and key exports from marketing arm Belarus Potash Company (BPC) – potash with 60% potassium content.

The list of sanctioned grades does not include code 3104 20 50: “with a potassium content evaluated as K2O, by weight, exceeding 40% but not exceeding 62% on the dry anhydrous product”.

EU sanctions imposed on Belarusian potash, 24 June 2021

Name of goods	Combined Nomenclature (CN) code
Potassium chloride with a potassium content evaluated as K2O, by weight, not exceeding 40% on the dry anhydrous product	3104 20 10
Potassium chloride with a potassium content evaluated as K2O, by weight, exceeding 62% on the dry anhydrous product	3104 20 90
Mineral or chemical fertilizers containing the three fertilizing elements: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium	3105 20 10
3105 20 90
Mineral or chemical fertilizers containing the two fertilizing elements: phosphorus and potassium	3105 60 00
Other fertilizers containing potassium chloride	ex 3105 90 20
ex 3105 90 80

The remaining products that do face sanctions account for approximately 18-20% of BPC’s annual export tonnage, it is understood.

Belarus supplies around 20% of the world’s potash volumes.

Supply contracts agreed before 25 June 2021 are also exempt from the sanctions, meaning key long-term bellwether supply contracts agreed with the world’s two largest MOP-buying nations, China and India, are safe – for now – as are sales to any other port agreed before 25 June.

A BPC spokesperson says of the three codes for the products, there are two in the EU’s list, and BPC intends to continue to working within the existing framework.

BPC previously warned the sanctions could have a wide-ranging impact on global food security.

The EU had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.

Front page picture: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, second left, during a visit to a dairy farm in the Svisloch region, 24 June
Source: Maxim Guchek/AP/Shutterstock