Belarus increased its potash exports last year by almost 13pc, national statistics committee Belstat has said.
But the pace of the rise slowed after the first half of 2017, when exports were up by over 40pc on a year earlier.
Belarus exported around 6.4mn t of K2O — the KCl equivalent of almost 10.6mn t — last year.
Shipments to non-CIS countries rose by 11pc to 6.2mn t of K2O (10.2mn t KCl), while deliveries to CIS countries increased by 77pc to 237,000t of K2O (389,000t KCl).
The 10.6mn t KCl total, achieved despite a short period of maintenance at one of producer Belaruskali's mines in late November, exceeded Argus' expectation of full-year 2017 exports of around 10.3mn t.
Belarusian KCl exports were 9.4mn t in 2016 — around 20pc of the global export market — up from 9.2mn t in 2015.
