Belarusian salt rebranded to reach EU markets and bypass sanctions, investigations reveal

Babel reported the information, citing materials of the Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC) and Radio Svoboda.

The Norta de-icing agent, approved in September 2022, is 98.2% sodium chloride - identical to technical salt Minsk previously exported to the EU. Journalists uncovered the scheme through a product code in a quality certificate.

According to BIC, the product attracted European buyers. Belarusian supplier Kompleksnye Udobreniya was set to deliver 66 tons of Norta to Poland's JP Company in March 2024. Kompleksnye Udobreniya is registered in Rechan agricultural town near Minsk at 54 Sadova Street, the same address as the company Rechen, part of the "Belaruskali-Agro" holding. Its beneficiary is the state-owned enterprise "Belaruskali."

Journalists asked chemist Siarhei Besarab to compare the chemical composition of Norta and Belaruskali's halite.  

“It’s the same mineral with a probability approaching 100%. Or, to be more precise, mineralogical raw material. It is the same in terms of the list of possible impurities and the indicators of the concentration levels of these impurities. There are essentially no valuable marker compounds apart from common salt — sodium chloride,” Besarab explained.

The Community of Railway Workers of Belarus, an opposition initiative founded in August 2020 after the presidential elections and mass protests against Alexander Lukashenko, states that the railcar used to transport Kompleksnye Udobreniya's goods to Poland also belongs to Belaruskali.  

It is likely that sanctioned potash products were supplied under the guise of Norta.

• An investigation by Radio Svoboda's Schemes project revealed that the Belarusian company Agroprodukt produces rapeseed oil from raw materials exported from the temporarily occupied areas of Kherson region.