Saskatchewan’s flax growers have voted in favour of doubling the levy they pay on the crop.
More than 50 registered flax growers who attended a meeting in Regina March 20 unanimously voted to increase the levy on flax seed to $2.36 per tonne from $1.18 per tonne.
The increase will take effect Aug. 1, if approved by the Agri-Food Council.
Gregor Beck, vice-chair of the Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission, said the commission would have been in dire straits if growers had rejected the levy hike because it has fixed annual commitments for long-term research projects.
“We’re in serious trouble. We cannot fill these research commitments plus our own administration.”
The old levy was established when growers were producing 700,000 to 900,000 tonnes of flax annually.
Flax output has been drastically reduced the past couple of years because of wet springs and the Triffid incident, in which a genetically modified flax variety contaminated the supply system. Last year, growers produced 368,000 tonnes of flax.
