Читать книгу Oil and Oilseed Processing - Ingrid Aguilo-Aguayo - Страница 18

Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) belonging to the family Lineaceae is a blue flowering herb that produces small flat seeds, which vary from golden yellow to reddish brown and have a nutty flavor (Kajla et al. 2015). Flaxseeds, also known as linseeds, are an economically important oilseed crop used for industrial, food, and feed purposes. Generally the term flaxseed refers to the seed grown for fiber production (linen), while linseed refers to the oilseed grown for industrial and food uses. In the current chapter, both terms will be used indistinctively.

Linseeds are currently being cultivated in more than 50 countries, predominantly in the Northern hemisphere as shown in Figure 1.1. The harvested area in 2017 amounted to 2.78 Mha representing a 14.04% annual increase during the last decade. For example, in the EU, the area harvested increased from 52 000 ha in 2008 to 70 000 ha in 2019, representing an average annual increase of 13.5% (European Commission 2019). World production of linseed increased from 1.98 Mt in 2000 to around 2.79 Mt in 2017. At the beginning of the century, Canada was the world's largest producer and exporter of flax, and represented about 40% of the world's production and 75% of the global flax trade (Oomah 2001). Currently, Canada produces 0.51 Mt of linseed per year and ranks third in the list of top producers, surpassed by Kazakhstan and Russia, which produced 0.68 and 0.61 Mt, respectively. Currently, most of the linseed currently produced is grown in Asia followed by Europe and the Americas, with production shares of 44.7, 28.6, and 22.7%, respectively. Canada is still the biggest linseed exporter, followed by Russia, Kazakhstan, Belgium, and the US. Exports of these countries during 2017 were approximately 0.62, 0.61, 0.27, 0.18, 0.03 Mt, respectively. Major linseed importers were Belgium, China, Turkey, and Germany with 0.58, 0.47, 0.19, and 0.15 Mt of seeds imported during 2017.

Belgium, which imports large amounts of linseeds is one of the world's most important linseed oil producers. In 2014, 0.12 Mt of linseed oil were produced in Belgium, only surpassed by China with an annual production of 0.19 Mt third, fourth, and fifth major linseed oil producers were the US, Turkey, and Germany. Top five linseed oil exporters during 2016 were Belgium, Germany, Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Gambia. In turn, Gambia was the major linseed oil importer followed by China, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK.