MINSK (Reuters) — The trading arm of state potash producer Belaruskali – Belarusian Potash Company — said on Friday it expects its potash prices next year to be above $300 a tonne.
On Thursday, deputy economy minister Alexander Yaroshenko said Belarus plans to cut potash export prices to $300 a tonne in 2014, adding to pressure on global prices for the soil nutrient already hit by the breakup of Belarus’s joint venture with Russia.
“Yaroshenko disclosed the minimum price, the price for FOB/DAF (free-on-board basis and delivery at frontier). We expect the price to be higher next year,” BPC representative Irina Savchenko told Reuters.
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BPC believes potash prices have reached their bottom and will start to rise, she added. North American prices at the Port of Vancouver were seen at $315-330 per tonne on an FOB basis in November.
The Economy Ministry clarified its position on Friday, saying its forecast of $300 per tonne did not refer to the sale price, but expected profit from exports — what it termed the “cleaned price.”
“Basically it is the net revenue arising from the sale of a tonne of potash,” the ministry said in a statement.
Belaruskali’s sales alliance with Russian producer Uralkali fell apart in July, causing an economic headache for Belarus, where potash exports are a key foreign-currency earner. The joint venture accounted for 40 percent of the world market.
The deputy minister also forecast the country would export seven million tonnes of potash in 2014, up from 6.1 million tonnes in 2012. BPC did not comment on the volume of its future sales.
