Retting - A key process in the production of high value fibre from flax

In recent years increasing attention has been paid to the possibility of introducing a larger area of industrial crops into agriculture in Western Europe. Flax growing played an important role in agriculture in the past, but re-introducing it today will depend not just upon finding markets which are higher volume and more stable than high street fashions, but also upon re-learning key processes in the handling of the crop. Foremost amongst these is retting. Traditional retting methods remain as much an art as a science, but biotechnology and biochemistry are increasingly being used to open new possibilities which could allow flax to be retted under a wider range of climates and fibre to be extracted cleanly for an increasingly diverse range of valuable markets.