Canada will have its lowest flax harvest in decades

Canadian farmers are waiting for new varieties that would make it possible to grow flax more profitably and competitively with producers from Russia and Kazakhstan. Adam Peleshati writes about this in an article on the agricultural analytical portal MarketsFarm: “After the smallest amount of area sown in Canada since 1950, the Canadian flax harvest in 2023-2024 is projected to be the lowest in recent years. decades. Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported in its major field crop estimates Thursday, Sept. 14, that this year's crop will be about 267,900 tonnes of flaxseed. This figure not only represents a decline of 43.4% from the previous year's 434,175 tonnes, but also marks Canada's smallest flax harvest since 1967, when 238,250 tonnes were produced. Going back a year, in February 2022 StatCan was forecasting a Canadian flax crop of 500,000 tonnes for 2023-24, but hot, dry conditions in the Prairies and lower prices due to strong competition from Russian and Kazakh crop producers ...