OREANDA-NEWS. December 17, 2012. Belarus exported 3.005 million tonnes of potash fertilizer (in terms of 100% potassium chloride) in January-September 2012, down 15.4% on the year, the National Statistics Committee told.

Potash fertilizer exports to the CIS states reduced 18.3% to 120,100 tonnes, other foreign states – down 17.8% to 2.884 million tonnes.

The average price of Belarusian potash fertilizer in Jan-Sep 2012 stood at USD 734 per tonne, up 4.3% on the year. The average price for potash shipped to the CIS states reduced by 3% year on year to USD 698 per tonne, and grew 4.6% for other foreign states to USD 735 per tonne.

Under present circumstances on the global market, sales of potash fertilizers are unlikely to grow. For that reason, Belarusian Potash Company (BPC) will hardly manage to grain as much in FX proceeds as last year (a target set by President Lukashenko), a government official told reporters.

Furthermore, Belarus has not yet made contracts with major importers of potash fertilizers – China and India. China has had poor crops this year, which does not contribute to signing long-term contracts, the expert said.

It is likely that the contract with India will be singed by late December. The contract with China will hardly be signed by February or March 2013, when the demand for potash becomes evident.

The situation on the global market is not favourable for raising export prices of potash fertilizers, the expert said. Under the latest contract with China, Belarus supplies potash at USD 470 per tonne, India - USD 490. It is unlikely that the price will go over USD 500 per tonne, the expert said. In his opinion, potash prices will remain unchanged.

As reported by the National Statistics Committee, Belarus’ potash fertilizer exports grew 12.4% year on year in 2011 to 4.698 million tonnes.