Three exporters of urea produced by the banned Belarusian company Grodno Azot have been added to the sanctions list, the National Tax Administration announced on Wednesday. These are World Chem Trading, Technospetstrading and TechnospetstradingExport.
The National Tax Office announced on Wednesday that the head of the National Tax Office used his powers and submitted a request to enter the sanctions list of three other entities. This list includes companies that export urea produced by the company “Grodno Azot” under the sanctions of the European Union. The list is compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration (MSWiA).
More entities on the sanctions list
“These are another organization identified by KAS, which is involved in the trafficking of urea from Belarus. One of these companies is registered in the United Arab Emirates, and the other two are registered in Belarus,” the KAS statement said. He added that these companies are World Chem Trading, Technospetstrading and TechnospetstradingExport.
He assured that the fertilizer industry will monitor and take effective measures to comply with the current sanctions.
According to KAS, these actions are the result of the monitoring of the international trade in fertilizers by the National Tax Administration in order to detect activities that violate the provisions of the sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
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“These actions not only prevent the obvious practice of evasion of sanctions, but also lead to the protection of the Polish fertilizer industry and producers of EU member states,” KAS said. He assured that the structures will constantly carry out rigorous analyzes of compliance with sanctions-related restrictions, covering many areas, sectors and issues.
“If further cases of violation of sanctions are revealed, the chairman of the National Council of the Russian Federation will take measures according to his authority,” KAS added.
KAS reminded that inclusion in the list of Polish sanctions means subjecting a person or institution to the following restrictive measures: freezing of all financial funds and economic resources, prohibition of access to persons included in the list or to their benefit – directly or indirectly. – any financial funds or economic resources, the prohibition of knowingly and intentionally participating in activities whose purpose or result is evasion of the law, exclusion from public or competitive procurement procedures, entry into the list of foreign citizens who are in their territory . the territory of the Republic of Poland is inadmissible (in the case of persons).
Azoti Group sounds the alarm
The largest producer of fertilizers in Poland, Grupa Azoty, recently warned that imports of fertilizers from Russia and Belarus significantly weaken the profitability of production in the EU. “In this situation, increased imports pose a very big risk to our industry,” Grupa Azoti said. He added that in his case the average was more than 60%. revenue comes from the AGRO segment. “Azoti Group” notes that it occupies the second place in the European Union in terms of production of nitrogen fertilizers and many components.
This company stated that if tariffs are introduced for producers in Russia and Belarus, the European Union will be self-sufficient in supplying farmers with mineral fertilizers. “In the 2022/2023 season, domestic consumption of nitrogen fertilizers was slightly more than 50% and NPK fertilizers more than 60% of domestic production capacity,” Grupa Azoty noted.
Paulina Zielinska-Olak, director of domestic sales of mineral fertilizers at Anvil, noted in November of this year that, for example, Russian producers make several times more profit on fertilizer sales than European producers. “These are margins of up to 40-50 percent, while the best European manufacturers produce margins of 20 percent and domestic manufacturers have EBITDA margins of 10 to 10 percent. This shows how difficult a situation we are in and we have to we urgently need to intervene,” she stressed.
On November 20 of this year, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia sent a joint letter to the European Union about the introduction of customs duties on fertilizers from Russia and Belarus. It can be up to 30-40 percent. cover
Main photo source: KAS
