Russia: Oil flax production may decline

According to the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), the area under oilseed flax this year decreased from last year's almost 2.1 million hectares to 1.55-1.6 million hectares. IKAR senior expert Vadim Semikin explains the decrease in crops, first of all, by the fact that last season, due to a large oversupply of oilseed flax both in Russia and in the world, its prices remained extremely low. “Many farmers have suffered losses, but the situation is likely to change in the new season that has begun,” he told Agroinvestor. Prices for oilseed flax dropped significantly over the year, Kirill Lozovoy, an analyst at the OleoScope information and analytical agency, confirms. In the first half of the 2022/23 season, there was stagnation, but then the downward trend continued again. “Further reduction in the cost of this agriculture may lead to a reduction in sown areas and, as a result, a drop in production volumes in Russia,” he adds. Lozovoy recalls that in 2022 Russia has ...