Russia posts record high flax seed harvest in 2016 - expert
BELOKURIKHA. March 3 (Interfax) - Russia posted a record high 600,000 tonne flax seed harvest in 2016, ProZerno CEO Vladimir Petrichenko said at a conference on winter grain in Belokurikha on Friday.
"As of now there is no official data for the results of the harvest, but we can estimate it at 600,000 tonnes, which is a record high for us," he said.
Experts forecast that practically all of the flax seed, more than 500,000 tonnes, will be exported. "Over 400,000 tonnes has left already," he said.
He said that "flax seed processing had been extinguished and this is the main oil product for export."
Petrichenko said that the world market for flax seed oil last season "was more vibrant than this season." "This year we do not see interesting prices for flax seed," he said, adding that the reason was because of the "main player on that market today, Canada."
He said that this season Canada sold 670,000 tonnes of flax seed, despite the fact that it produced less than 580,000 tonnes. "But they had a large carryover from last season, around 320,000 tonnes, which they are now finishing up selling," he said. China is Canada's main export market. "This year we are selling more to Turkey and less to Belgium, even though we usually sell in Ghent [Belgium]," he said.
Petrichenko said that the new flax seed season "will nevertheless be more interesting than now." "We have hopes for flax seed in 2017," he said.