Flax import substitution prospects

First Deputy Agriculture Minister Dzhambulat Khatuov has chaired a conference on the development prospects of the flax growing industry in the context of new forms of government support.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade and industry unions. The deputy minister noted that flax is a main source of domestic organic raw materials, which has unique properties and could be used by both the textile industry and high-tech sectors of the national economy.

The conference participants discussed a plan of measures aimed to modernize flax processing enterprises. According to Khatuov, the Russian Agriculture Ministry has developed measures of technical and technological modernization of the industry and renovation and construction of enterprises for primary and deep processing of flax. For instance, agrarians could use preferential loans and subsidies. Flax was sown on 50,600 hectares in Russia in 2019, or on 6,100 hectares more than the year before. It was mostly sown in the Omsk, Tver, and Smolensk regions, while the Ivanovo region and the Republic of Mary El resumed flax sowing.

(Based on materials of the Russian Agriculture Ministry)