TERRE DE LIN, key player in seeds production
To produce flax fibers, seeds are needed each year. In addition to its involvement in breeding upstream, the cooperative harvests and multiplies seeds each year, both for the needs of its adherents but also for its customers, flax scutching mills and seeds distributors.
This seed production activity is useful to TERRE DE LIN on the one hand because it ensures its own needs for seeds. On the other hand, TERRE DE LIN follows up the varieties it has developed. Thus the cooperative keeps listening to the producer needs and keeps contact with the varieties it has put on the market.
So as to certify a high seed quality, these are harvested in the field by ecapsulating. Harvesting in the fields demands a reactive crop organization each year based on a multiplication plan driven by the cooperative. In each field, only one specific variety is grown and the traceability back to the field is kept throughout the process, together with the producer and the variety information.
Once harvested, the seeds are dried if necessary, pre-cleaned, sorted out and stored until the next production campaign.
For spring flax, the campaign starts around November. After a new passage in the seed plant, the seeds are then conditioned.
So as to guarantee the lots quality, some samples are taken and analyzed by the GNIS (group of national producers of seeds). If they are in conformity with certification standards, then the seeds become a quality certificate.
Besides, TERRE DE LIN has received the “Maitre semencier” certification, showing that its organization complies with good practices.
Seed production requires a specific knowhow. Being committed to quality fiber, TERRE DE LIN is also involved in quality production for seeds, firstly by collecting the seeds in the fields.
