March 18, 2013 Challenges to Producing Flax in Canada

Challenges to Producing Flax in Canada

by Alvin Ulrich, Biolin Research / Crop Fibers Canada

Although oilseed flax is already grown widely in Western Canada and fiber flax could also be introduced as a dedicated fiber crop or even as a dual purpose crop, there are challenges to overcome before many profitable flax fiber based industries will develop. What follows is a brief description of these challenges. All crops introduced into Western Canada had challenges when they were first introduced (e.g., it took more than 30 years to get a wheat variety to reliably mature). If there is enough potential benefit, funding and human perseverance and novel insights, these challenges can be overcome and yet another new industry can be created.

Weather
Growing season weather has a great effect on all crops – it greatly impacts plant height, plant tillering, plant growth vigor, the severity of insect and disease, the date of maturity and, last but often the most important, the quantity and quality of the seed harvest. These effects are no different for flax than for any other annual crops, however, in the case of flax fiber, the weather has a whole other dimension of impact. To date, the cheapest and simplest way to easily get clean flax fibers out of flax straw is to have the straw “retted” or partially rotted in the field. During this retting step, microbes grow and multiply on the flax stems and, for their first major food source, dissolve the pectin that surrounds the fiber bundles and holds them firmly to the rest of the plant. When this pectin is removed, it is as if the glue is gone. With strong mechanical action, the clean fibers can now be separated from the rest of the flax stem. If we try to extract fibers from unretted straw, we must use much more energy and even then, we will not get clean fibers unless we carry out additional chemical or mechanical treatments.

Unfortunately, the spread and growth of the microbes responsible for retting flax straw are influenced very much by the weather. For optimum growth, such microbes like moist warm conditions. Given the annual variation in the climate of Western Canada, we cannot always count on having warm moist weather after cutting and harvesting our flax straw. Sometimes, we have dry and/or cold weather, especially as summer turns to fall and fall turns to winter. During such dry and/or cold spells there is little or no retting (although “weathering” may occur). Of course, if we wait over winter, the straw may ret in the warmer, wetter days of early spring but this is only possible if farmers are patient enough to leave the straw lying in the field till late spring to insure well retted straw. This, in turn, leads to four possible scenarios:

1.     Forget about trying to get fiber from flax;
2.     Try to get retted straw by late fall or early spring (if we don’t get it, then dispose of the straw in some way (e.g., burning, chopping with a forage chopper);
3.     Use an alternative to field retting (e.g., enzyme retting, steam explosion, etc.) to treat all straw or at least the straw that is under-retted; and/or
4.     Find uses for all types of flax fiber, including fiber from retted, partially retted and unretted straw.

Scale of Operations
There are many existing and potential users of flax fiber – some are very big users; others are relatively small. Although it is tempting to target big users, there are significant challenges to doing this. Existing and potential big users include industries that spin flax fiber into linen and linen blend yarns and plastic composite makers that make parts for the auto industry. Individual companies in these industry sectors could use from 5,000 to 40,000 tonnes of flax fiber annually.

However, before they start buying, they want a large assured supply per month of consistent quality (if the quality is not consistent, at least they want to know how it varies from container to container). However, on the production side, we have a bunch of farmers who are just learning how to produce consistent quality straw. We also have new processors who are learning how to process and manage a range of straw types to produce only one or two types of large volume consistent quality. Variations in growing season weather and variations in soil types, previous crops and farmers’ agronomic practices generate even more variation. In the longer run, storage, sampling and blending offer the possibility of producing large lots of consistent quality but, in the short run, as the flax fiber industry is growing, these options are not always possible.

Farmer Incentives
In Canada, farmers have a free choice to grow as much of any crop as they choose (except for crops like hemp and poppies). No one can command or order them to grow a particular crop. The actual crops a farmer grows are very much influenced by the long term growing conditions (i.e., tobacco is not grown on the Prairies because we do not have enough heat units for it) and by the profit the farmer expects to make from the crop. Of course farmers have to also consider the need to rotate crops to reduce weed, insect and fungi problems and the need to spread financial risks among several types of crop.

Will farmers in Western Canada continue to grow oilseed flax, and to consider growing dual purpose or fiber specific flax in the future? The answer depends, to a large extent, on the amount of profit farmers would expect to generate doing this, relative to the profits they could make from other crops. It will also be influenced by how much extra work and “bother” is involved and if any extra equipment is needed.

Many farmers say they would only try to handle and harvest their oilseed flax in a non-traditional way (to get better quality fiber), IF they get paid for all the extra expenses and if they get some additional profit AND if they see a large processing plant start up. Potential investors in flax straw processing plants that target higher end fiber do not want to build a big processing plant unless they already see that farmers are producing better quality straw. Hence we have a “chicken and egg” dilemma (i.e., which came first – the chicken or the egg?) Who will pay farmers to produce better quality straw before a processing plant is built? Who will build a processing plant before they see some better quality straw being produced? (NOTE: there are those that say processors should concentrate on using the flax straw that “is out there already” – if this were so easy and so profitable, why haven’t there been more profitable flax straw processing plants built over the last hundred years in Western Canada?)

Lack of Patience and Understanding
In Western Canada, in the last two decades, we have had a number of attempts to start and build flax fiber based industries. Few of these have survived. There are a variety of reasons. In some cases, the targeted end use was so narrow and so low valued that the only way to make a profit was to be large scale and have perfect conditions. In other cases, potential investors have visited and/or even invested in a pilot facility, but stopped the operation or potential investment because of unfavorable weather conditions (i.e., poor straw quality and/or no retting). Still others are only interested in investing if the straw quality is very good and the straw is very cheap. Others insist on using all the fiber for one use (e.g., textiles) and quickly abandon their investment ideas when they realize only producing one type of fiber is an unrealistic dream. We also have lack of patience from research funders and farmers. Most want to see significant results in one to three years; yet we are talking about starting a whole new industry and not just one or two new companies. Even a new potential wheat variety is tested at least three years before it can be released as a new licensed variety – yet farmers and researchers funders are dismissive of the potential of fiber related crops, if it doesn’t turn out well after a one or two year trial.

Mistrust
Many practices and technologies used in fiber based businesses throughout the world are not patented. They are, instead, very often, kept as trade secrets. These may include ways to produce and handle the fiber crop, ways to handle it after harvest, methods and equipment to process it, chemicals and additives to use to make processing or the performance of the processed fiber better, ways to turn the fibers into products and sales leads, contacts and sources of raw materials. These small and large secrets can have a great influence on the profit that a fiber based company can make. Hence, potential investors may not share vital information with potential local partners and farmers; conversely potential local partners and farmers may not share vital information with potential investors. There are legal documents like non-disclosure agreements to help overcome this problem but they may be difficult to enforce, especially when non-Canadians are involved in such agreements.

Color
In the case of flax fiber being used for spinning yarns, the original color of the fiber can have an important being on the final color of the yarn, even when operators attempt to bleach all the natural color out of the fiber. This is because it is hard to exactly guess how much bleaching chemicals are needed to eliminate all traces of color but not significantly weaken the fiber. Color in flax fiber is influenced a great deal by the type of microbes involved in the retting and/or by the length of retting. These, are in turn, affected by things in the environment (i.e., soil type, dew versus rain, amount of bright sunlight, etc). Since Western Canada has many micro-climates, soil types and microbial communities, the color of field retted straw will vary. Potential producers of fibers for spinning need to keep in mind that a range of retting colors are possible in Western Canada and that some spinner are not interested in buying any fiber, unless they can secure a large quantity of consistently colored fiber.