{"id":191683,"date":"2026-06-12T22:16:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/191683\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T23:32:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T20:32:45","slug":"belarus-wood-pellet-industry-in-deep-crisis-following-eu-sanctions-and-failed-evasion-attempts-report-says","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/191683\/","title":{"rendered":"Belarus wood pellet industry in deep crisis following EU sanctions and failed evasion attempts, report says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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According to the article, titled \u201cClean energy \u2013 dirty routes. How Belarusian wood pellets were marketed to Europe in an attempt to circumvent sanctions,\u201d \u2013 the BIC says that Belarus had built 64 wood pellet plants with a total output capacity of 900,000 tons a year as of 2023, enough to supply half of the EU\u2019s import needs. \u201cHowever, these dozens of enterprises have yet to reach their full productivity potential,\u201d the article says. \u201cIn the first nine months of 2023, Belarus\u2019s total pellet production did not exceed 30,000 tons, which is only three percent of its potential. This is less than the capacity of the Mazyr plant alone, which can produce 36,000 tons of pellets per year. It is also 20 times less than what Belarus exported to the European Union in 2021.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 12, Pozirk. The Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC) has published an article <\/a>detailing how Belarus\u2019 once-promising wood pellet industry has fallen into a crisis after EU sanctions cut it off from the most lucrative market despite attempts at circumvention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the investigation, Belarusian companies could have earned tens of millions of euros off Europe\u2019s energy shortages, but EU sanctions against Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s regime disrupted the sector\u2019s export potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the EU revoked Belarus\u2019 pellet certification and banned all Belarusian wood imports in 2022, exporters reportedly tried to reroute shipments through Turkey, which had become a hub for Russian and Belarusian sanction evasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BIC says that it analyzed customs data from 2022 to 2025 and identified 81 shipments of Belarusian pellets to Turkey, totaling $750,000. Fifteen companies from Belarus, 11 from Turkey, and one from Poland took part in the transactions. Seven Turkish companies allegedly acted as importers and exporters, purchasing pellets from Belarus and then selling the same product in the EU, which could suggest re-export. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, the article says, Belarusian companies TDA Azimut Optyma and TAA Kranatex-Bel supplied 150 tons of pellets to Turkish company Lsk Makro Agac Sanayi Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, which in the same period exported 900 tons of pellets to the EU, some of it traceable back to Belarus and Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only European company on the list that likely supplied Belarusian pellets to Turkey is Poland\u2019s Supinvest Sp. z o.o, the article says. The company was established in May 2022, just weeks before the EU embargo on Belarusian wood products took effect. According to the investigation, Supinvest supplied 10 shipments of Belarusian pellets to Turkey that fall, worth about $150,000, likely as part of a sanctions evasion chain. Claimed correspondence between the then Prime Minister Raman Ha\u0142o\u016d\u010danka and State Control Committee head Vasil Hierasima\u016d, provided by a group called Rabo\u010dy ruch (Working People\u2019s Movement), indicates the company later lost nearly \u20ac50,000 after failing to resell the pellets it had purchased. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leak lists 17 attempts to bypass sanctions, with only being successful and the others resulting in financial losses, frozen accounts, seized cargo and criminal cases. Examples include a Turkish buyer losing $300,000 after failing to clear a shipment; a Kazakh company losing an \u20ac80,000 prepayment after customs exposed falsified origin documents; a Polish firm losing \u20ac50,000 after failing to resell pellets purchased in Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2024, the number of shipments via Turkey had reportedly collapsed from 75 in 2022 to just two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the article, Poland alone has registered nearly 2,500 sanction evasion cases since 2022, 85 percent of them involving Belarus. At least 91 cases concern specifically wood-processing products. In one 2025 case, Polish authorities arrested five people for forging documents and falsely declaring Belarusian pellets as Kazakh or Turkish; they now face 3 to 30 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To absorb unsold pellets, Belarus reportedly launched a state program converting factories and households to pellet heating. But enterprises were forced to buy pellets 37 percent below cost, making the strategy unprofitable. Citizens were offered subsidies covering up to 40 percent of pellet boiler costs, yet the demand remained low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials expected domestic consumption to reach 250,000 tons by 2025, but the actual consumption was 52,000 tons, the article said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the \u201cfailure of the original plan,\u201d Belarusian authorities reportedly plan to build new wood pellet infrastructure, arguing that \u201cthis opens up additional prospects.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the article, titled \u201cClean energy \u2013 dirty routes. How Belarusian wood pellets were marketed to Europe in an attempt to circumvent sanctions,\u201d \u2013 the BIC says that Belarus had built 64 wood pellet plants with a total output capacity of 900,000 tons a year as of 2023, enough to supply half of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":90730,"template":"","rubric":[21,16],"class_list":["post-191683","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-economy","rubric-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBelarus wood pellet industry in deep crisis following EU sanctions and failed evasion attempts, report says | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to the article, titled \u201cClean energy \u2013 dirty routes. 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