--- title: "Thirty Thousand Tonnes From Minsk: Belarusian Potash Returns to New Orleans" description: "The first US-bound Belarusian potash in four years was paid for in prisoner releases and is meant to ease American farmers’ costs" author: "Jan Sokol" published: 2026-10-14T14:36:48Z modified: 2026-10-15T04:21:33Z url: https://rews.cc/a/thirty-thousand-tonnes-from-minsk-belarusian-potash-returns--130f25 language: en tags: ["potash", "agriculture", "trump", "canada", "sanctions", "world", "business"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Thirty Thousand Tonnes From Minsk: Belarusian Potash Returns to New Orleans *The first US-bound Belarusian potash in four years was paid for in prisoner releases and is meant to ease American farmers’ costs* By Jan Sokol · October 14, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/thirty-thousand-tonnes-from-minsk-belarusian-potash-returns--130f25 ## In brief - A 30,000-tonne Belarusian potash cargo was due at the Port of New Orleans on October 14, per Kpler data - It is the first Belarusian potash shipped to the US in four years, loaded at Russia’s Bronka port on September 15 - The US Treasury delisted Belaruskali on March 26, 2026, after Belarus released 250 political prisoners - Trump wants cheaper fertiliser as farm costs rise amid the Iran war and a trade dispute with Canada - The cargo is about 0.5% of US potash imports; Lithuania called a US deal a betrayal of Ukraine A ship was due on Wednesday, October 14, at the Port of New Orleans, where the Mississippi runs into the Gulf. In its hold were 30,000 tonnes of potash from Belarus. Ship-tracking data from Kpler put the arrival on that day, as [Al Jazeera’s Catherine Nouhan reported](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/14/what-is-potash-and-why-is-the-us-importing-it-from-belarus). No Belarusian potash had been sent to the United States in four years. Potash is a potassium salt, and farmers spread it on their fields. This cargo was muriate of potash, which is potassium chloride and the most common form of the fertiliser. Belaruskali, the Belarusian state producer, made it. According to [World Fertilizer](https://www.worldfertilizer.com/potash/05102026/first-shipment-of-belarusian-potash-set-to-reach-the-us/), which credited the industry agency Argus with the first report, the cargo left the Russian port of Bronka on September 15 on a vessel flagged in the Marshall Islands. So a Belarusian salt shipped out of a Russian harbour on a ship registered in the Pacific was crossing the Atlantic to feed American corn. Supply chains of this kind tend to form when a state’s goods are not welcome under its own name. ![A cargo ship shaped like an ear of corn carries pale grain, with green husk leaves at its stern and a cream wake on teal water.](https://rews.cc/img/298f860a032c03cfdf96a700a0afd9f9dce67fa0.webp) ## What the potash cost Washington blacklisted Belaruskali in August 2021, part of the West’s response to Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown at home. The potash stopped coming. Then in December 2025 John Coale, the American special envoy, flew to Minsk. Afterwards Lukashenko pardoned 123 prisoners, and [PBS NewsHour reported](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/belarus-frees-prominent-political-prisoners-as-u-s-lifts-sanctions-on-countrys-potash-exports) that they included the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski and the opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova. The US Treasury issued a licence permitting transactions with Belaruskali and its trading arm, the Belarusian Potash Company. Coale returned on March 19. A week later, on March 26, the Treasury [removed Belaruskali and the Belarusian Potash Company](https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/116718/) from its sanctions list. Restrictions on Belarus’s Finance Ministry and two banks were eased too. In return Belarus released 250 political prisoners. The Treasury called the relief targeted and said it did not lift sanctions on Belarus as a whole. The broader measures imposed in 2022 over Minsk’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stay in force. Here is a reflection, and nothing more than that. A government that fills its prisons will always have prisoners to trade. Each person freed is real and their freedom matters. Each one also has a price, and the price here was quoted in tonnes of fertiliser. ![A large key made of pink and cream stones forms an open doorway, with a dark human figure walking through against a bright blue background.](https://rews.cc/img/7ded01af001dc6fcc25a8bb760f6ea560f1ce157.webp) ## Why Washington wanted it The motive was the American farm. President Donald Trump is looking for cheaper fertiliser as farmers’ costs rise, and Al Jazeera links that rise to the war with Iran and to the trade dispute with Canada. Canada is where the United States gets most of its potash, so the quarrel with Ottawa has made farmers more worried about costs. On September 21, Trump said Washington was working on a “major deal” to buy Belarusian potash, which he said should be “significantly cheaper” than the Canadian product. Ten days before that, Lukashenko had said Belarus was already selling potash to American buyers. The same reasoning, buying from Moscow’s side of the fence to bring prices down before an election, was behind the White House’s [purchase of Russian diesel](https://rews.cc/a/trump-buys-diesel-from-putin-before-the-midterms-and-senator-a22b71) this autumn. Both deals were political gestures at least as much as trade. ## Small numbers The cargo itself is small. The United States imported 5.6 million tonnes of potash in 2025 and depends on imports for 92 percent of what it uses, according to [figures cited by Investing News](https://investingnews.com/us-recieves-potash-from-belarus/). Thirty thousand tonnes is about half of one percent of that. From 2017 to 2021, before the sanctions, Belarus sent the United States about 635,000 tonnes a year on average. Prices were already falling before the ship sailed. The World Bank’s benchmark for muriate of potash went from $405.00 a tonne in May 2026 to $367.50 in September, [Crux Investor reported](https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/sanctions-relief-returns-belarusian-potash-to-us-ports-as-prices-fall). Most analysts treat the cargo as a test of whether Belarus can get back into the American market. They do not expect it to unseat Canada. ![A small bag of popcorn casts a large, dark blue shadow shaped like a megaphone against a bright yellow background.](https://rews.cc/img/2348cf799c4a06080df2200b0cdac25f5b1a4852.webp) A farmer in Iowa or Illinois will not notice it on the invoice. The shipment matters as a signal, to Minsk that its salt can be sold again and to Ottawa that its biggest customer is looking elsewhere. ## The neighbours Belarus’s neighbours read the signal differently. Lithuania once let Belarusian potash pass through its port of Klaipėda, and it objected. Žygimantas Pavilionis, deputy chair of the Lithuanian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, called the prospect of an American deal “a betrayal of Ukraine and of the solidarity of the EU and Canada,” as [Belsat reported](https://en.belsat.eu/95551145/belarusian-potash-returns-to-us-market-but-lithuania-stands-firm). European sanctions on Belaruskali remain in place. The ship came by way of a Russian port precisely because the Baltic route through the European Union is still closed. For American farmers the shipment is a small amount of cheaper fertiliser that will hardly change their costs. For Lukashenko, who traded 250 of his prisoners in March, it is the first time in four years that his potash has been bought in the United States under his own country’s name.