PM: Belarus will be ready to divert fertilizer transit from Lithuania to other ports by December

NOVOGRUDOK, 13 August (BelTA) – By December Belarus will be ready to ship its fertilizers through alternative transit routes, Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said on 13 August commenting on Lithuania’s decision to suspend the transit of Belarusian fertilizers, BelTA has learned.

“First of all, no one notified us about this. I learned about it from the media. I don’t know if this is a private opinion or an official stance. In any case, we expected it. We have been preparing for it and we have been working on alternative routes to ship Belarusian fertilizers,” Roman Golovchenko noted.

“Now we are negotiating this matter with Russian partners. We are studying cost efficiency, logistics subtleties associated with vessels of a certain type, warehouses, storage facilities,” the prime minister said. According to him, the options under consideration include ports in Murmansk and Leningrad Oblast.

According to Roman Golovchenko, there should not be any problems with this. Belarus has been working on it for a long time. “There is support from the Russian Federation. I am sure that we will agree on special tariffs for railway transportation, which will counterbalance the increase in the transportation distance. The work on it is in full swing, therefore by December, when the transit is to be discontinued, we will be fully prepared for the transshipment of fertilizers through alternative ports,” he said.

According to Belarus’ estimates, if Lithuania makes such a decision on its own, Lithuania is going to lose about €100 million in revenue.