This spring is busier than usual for some farmers as they try to finish up on last year’s harvest.
 
Others are busy with soil tests and getting machinery, etc ready to go for seeding, while in some areas of the southwest seeding is just starting to get underway.
 
We’ll know more on producer’s seeding plans for this year when Stats Canada releases its planting intentions report.
 
Don Kerr, President of the Flax Council of Canada says last year was tough, they saw a drop in flax acres and production:
 
"We do have maybe a challenge of some quality issues this year with flax seed, and at the same time, we're looking at some markets worldwide and a changing situation globally, where we're seeing some dynamics change in markets like Europe. China is fairly consistent, it's a good market for us, the US is a good market for us."
 
Kerr talks about the importance of our export markets:
 
"The main markets are China, number one, Europe, number two, and the US, number three," he said. "We'll export about 600,000 tonns of flax. China will take about 350,000, Europe about 150,000, and the US will take about 100,000."