France – Belgium – the Netherlands

The gathering of flax is over since September 28 in the three countries. The retting of the last gathered straws is quite good compared to the others. Their color is more uniform, except for those of Southern Eure as the lack of water was too important.

The yield is expected to be between 6 and 6.5 MT.

The long fibers yield as well as the tows yield are lower than during the 2015 crop and the straws are more heterogeneous. The spinning mills will have more difficulties to work on the different qualities of straws.

The long fibers yield is on average 13 to 13.5 bales per hectare. On the 110.000 hectares cultivated with flax the long fibers will contribute to around 143.000 MT whereas in the meantime there had been an increase in the flax-sown surface.