Flax and Linseed - Industrial Crops: Breeding for BioEnergy and Bioproducts - page 232

cultivated as a dual-purpose crop, but nowadays fiber flax and linseed represent
different gene pools. Recently, a 30,000-year-old processed and colored flax fiber
was found, indicating that early humans made fabric or threads from the flax [ 3 ].
There has been a decrease in the number of flax-producing areas all over the
world in recent years. In traditional western European countries like France,
Belgium, and the Netherlands, flax production areas have been decreasing since
2006 [ 4 , 5 ]. In Egypt, however, there has been a small increase in production areas
since 2007. The first production reports from China in 2006 confirmed a flax area of
approximately 130,000 ha of which only 78,000 ha were processed. The world
production areas as of 2009 covered approximately 400,000 ha of which about 25 %
were located in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands [ 4 ]. Fiber production from
western European countries represents approximately 60 % of the world market.
The available statistical data show that worldwide fiber production is mainly
concentrated in western European countries between the Escaut and Seine rivers
[ 4 , 5 ]. At the beginning of the 1990s, the production areas in EU countries reached
50-80,000 ha, but decreased massively between 1991 and 1992 to 44,000 ha during
the peak of the flax crisis. Because of the endowment support from the EU, flax
areas stabilized and interest in flax production rose. Flax areas again increased and
reached more than 100,000 ha in 1995. However, the main reason for this unex-
pected increase was speculative flax growing in nontraditional flax-growing coun-
tries with the aim of receiving subsidies. That is to say, the financial support was
provided to these countries without any attention to the crops' subsequent
processing and utilization. Since 2000, rules for providing subsidies have been
changed, and many nontraditional flax-growing countries like Great Britain, Spain,
and Portugal lost interest in flax growing. For this reason the flax areas in the EU
again decreased from almost 214,000 ha in 1999 to 87,000 in 2002. The admittance
of new countries to the EU (i.e., Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic)
influenced the increase in flax areas in 2004, but in the long term, a continuous
decrease in flax areas has been observed [ 4 , 5 ]. The decline of cultivation areas in
traditional western European flax countries has been carried out by the CELC (the
European Confederation of Linen and Hemp) recommendation to balance supply
and demand for long fiber due to previous large stocks which were not liquidated
even at minimum fixed price of 1.5 EUR per kg. In the other flax-producing
countries like the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, and Germany, the decrease
of flax areas was not caused be the CELC regulation but under the influence of
unfavorable economic conditions which were not improved by the EU subsidy
policy in the individual countries. The world linseed areas and production data are
described in detailed in section “ Areas of production ” of this chapter and presented
in Tables 11.1 and 11.2 and Figs. 11.1 and 11.2 .
Linseed oil is primarily used for medical and food purposes and then for
industrial purposes, such as the production of paints and oil-based coverings and
the manufacture of linoleum flooring [ 6 ]. The seeds are also used in some food
products, e.g., as an ingredient in bread. Linseed oil is high in linolenic fatty acid
content (45-60 %), making it a very effective drying agent. Linseed oil also offers
important nutritional benefits because of the high levels of omega-3 fatty acids,