Thousands of tonnes of rapeseed oil produced by the Belarusian company „Agroprodukt“ have been travelling through Lithuania by rail so far, the portal „15min“ reported on Wednesday, after conducting a study with a number of foreign partners. 

According to the portal, after journalists began to wonder about the origin of the raw materials of „Agroprodukt“, LTG Cargo“, a company of the LTG Group, which transports the cargoes of the Belarusian company through Lithuania, announced that it had launched an internal investigation and stopped their transport.

Eight carriages of rapeseed oil, which had been transported to the Klaipėda port, were detained in Kenya last week.

„15min“ partners – Belarusian Investigation Centre (BIC) together with Ukrainian hackers „KiBorg“ have identified „Agroprodukt“ as one of the Belarusian factories to which rapeseed from the occupied territories of Ukraine, mainly from the Kherson region, has been supplied since 2023. 

Belarusian oil reaches Norway, Israel, China, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam via Lithuania.

The Belarusian company has not yet been included in any international sanctions lists, and has therefore not yet come to the attention of Lithuanian authorities.

According to the data of „LTG Cargo“, almost 50 thousand tons of „Agroprodukt“ oil will transit Lithuania in 2024. However, according to leaked data from the Belarusian railways, this figure was much higher, and three companies „Gen Cargo“, „Baltijos Pervežimai“, and „Baltic Cargo Agent“ were involved in the transport of these cargoes in Lithuania last year.

The companies said they were unaware of the use of rapeseed from the occupied territories of Ukraine by the Belarusian plant. In addition, they said, the company was not on the list of sanctioned companies, and the shipments had passed through customs and the filters of „Lithuanian Railways“. 

The Ministry of Agriculture says that the European Union (EU) has not banned food imports, nor has it increased duties on rapeseed oil. The only way to stop Russian and Belarusian products entering the EU, it says, is to create conditions that make them uncompetitive, but these discussions need to take place at Community level.

In June 2024, Lithuania announced additional bans on imports of agricultural products from Russia and Belarus, and oil was added to the list. However, the ban did not apply to goods in transit.

Ukraine was the main supplier of rapeseed oil to the EU until the Russian invasion. However, since the outbreak of the war, Belarus has taken its place on the Community market.