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Cash Talk: Prairie Flax Harvest Slow to get Underway
23.09.2010 13:22 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
With only one week remaining in September, basically the only Prairie flax to come off the fields has been in eastern Manitoba.
Paul Martens, Flax Coordinator with Prairie Flax Products in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, said most of the harvested flax is east of Portage, as the rest of the prairies continue to be wet.
«If the weather was to smarten up in Saskatchewan they could probably start doing some flax, because there is some that is ready to go,» Martens said. «They just can’t get into the field.»
Martens said the quality of the crop has been good in Manitoba, but he expects to see some poorer samples across the rest of the prairies, in particular Saskatchewan.
«They’ve had some issues with late seeding, and in the Melville area they’ve had some significant frost which could hurt the quality,» he said. «If you have any immature green kernels, it will really affect the quality, thus affecting the price.»
Speaking of the price, Martens said the cash market has been fairly strong of late for a number of reasons.
«We had less acres planted to start with, then you have all the rain and flooding, so even the acres that got in the ground have been cut down by the weather,» Martens said. «We’ve had a bit of a disease problem which will cut down on the yield. We’ve had some weed issues as well.»
While prices have been strong, Martens said the large carryover of flax from last year could very easily put a lid on how high prices go.
Martens said if they were to receive any Triffid free samples, Europeans would be very interested in buying flax.
Flax prices in Alberta and Saskatchewan range from the $12/bu area at some elevators, to around $13/bu fob farm.
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