OREANDA-NEWS. June 14, 2012. Belarus will turn to Russia with a proposal to expand the scope of activities of the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC) by authorizing the company to control exports of nitrogen, phosphor fertilizers. Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko made a statement to that extent on Tuesday as he met with BPC Director General Valeri Ivanov, the presidential press service reports.

Speaking of the company’s development prospects, Alexander Lukashenko noted that this issue would be discussed during a visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Belarus.

“It is one of the issues I would like to discuss with the President of Russia during his visit to Belarus: cooperation in sales of potash fertilizers, vesting the company with the functions to sell nitrogen and phosphor fertilizers, involvement of Russian companies. The volumes handled by BPC are huge, worth over USD 3 billion. This is only from the Belarusian side. The same amount is provided by Russia. Big companies do not earn as much on oil as on potash fertilizers. Therefore, we have no doubts as to the existence of the joint venture. It should exist, should grow and evolve. In which direction? This we will discuss with the President of Russia in terms of whether the Russian side is interested to work in that direction. We are, of course, interested.”

Established in April 2005, Joint Stock Company “Belarusian Potash Company” (BPC) the sole exporter of potassium fertilizers produced by Belaruskali and Uralkali.

The BPC shareholding structure includes Belaruskali with 45%, Belarusian Railways (5%) and Russia’s Uralkali with 50%.

At the moment, BPC controls 42% of the world’s potash fertilizer market.