Ag Matters: Potash Debacle

Canada is the world’s largest producer of potassium Potash, and it delivers around ten million tons every year directly to American farm suppliers. Canadian potash is currently tariff-free. On at least two occasions this past week, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that his administration was in discussions to buy potash from Belarus at a lower price than its currently getting from Canada.

However, shortly after Trump’s announcement was made public, Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko refuted Trump’s claim, saying his country does not have the available potash as it’s nearly all contracted to China. 

Saskatchewan, where almost all Canadian potash is mined, is home to the largest ethnic Ukrainian community in Canada. About 15 percent of its population claims a Ukrainian heritage, back to when tens of thousands of Ukrainian immigrants responded to the Homestead Act of 1890 and moved to escape serfdom and settle and farm the Canadian prairies. 

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said he was shocked that President Trump would even consider buying Belarus potash, a country currently under international sanctions for aiding and facilitating Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Pam Schwan is president of the Saskatchewan Mining Association. She says that while Belarus does have some large potash mines, its annual output is less than half of Canadian production. Belarus is a landlocked country, and its potash supply chain is limited to rail lines running east across Russia. Conversely, Canada has supply lines directly to American potash buyers.

Schwan says that the U.S. is Canada’s largest potash customer, but incidents like this only reinforce the industry’s push to expand and diversify its international markets.