US president Donald Trump said on Monday that Washington is negotiating a ‘massive deal’ to buy potash from Belarus at prices ‘substantially less’ than what it currently pays Canada. ‘The United States is working on a massive Deal with respect to the purchase of Potash from Belarus.

The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our Farmers and Ranchers,’ he wrote on Truth Social, according to AFP and the Anadolu agency. Potash is a fertiliser input, and the United States imported about 13 million tonnes in 2025, nearly 90% of it from Canada, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) cited by Bloomberg; Belarus shipped more than 700,000 tonnes to the US in 2021, before American restrictions. Alexander Lukashenko himself said on Monday that there is no volume available to sell because ‘everything is contracted’, according to his office cited by The Hill. Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya warned the United States against the deal, which AFP described as risky; the European Union (EU) keeps restrictions on potash imports from Belarus and has frozen the assets of state producer Belaruskali.