Flax straw processing expansion creates greater opportunities

By EduTransfer Design Associates and Haywire Creative

Photo by Schweitzer-Mauduit Canada

A $1.12 million expansion of Schweitzer-Mauduit Canada’s (SMC) flax straw processing capabilities in Manitoba will give farmers an expanded market for their waste flax straw. The expansion will be funded with $385,000 under the Canada/Manitoba Growing Forward initiative. The province is also contributing an additional $100,000 through Entrepreneurship, Training and Trade's Technology Commercialization Program. SMC is providing $485,000 in matching funds and the National Research Council is contributing $150,000.

The expansion will be used to build a new plant at Winkler, about 130 km southwest of Winnipeg, and to improve efficiencies at the Carman plant.  The SMC Carman plant is the largest flax-fibre processing plant in the world.

“We really appreciate the commitment that both the provincial and the federal governments have shown to rural development," said Greg Archibald, Vice President of SMC, who is responsible for the Canadian affiliate of Schweitzer-Mauduit International. "With this new equipment we will be producing a line of renewable, sustainable biomaterials to serve the growing bioeconomy throughout North America.”

SMC has facilities in Carman and Winkler and a mobile processing facility in Treherne. It processes approximately 100,000 tonnes of flax straw annually from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and North Dakota, creating bast fibre for paper and flax shives for horse bedding, soil erosion control and biofuel. Flax fibre can also be substituted for fiberglass and other petroleum based products in some applications to help manufacturers lower their carbon footprint.

Currently, SMC is an important contributor to economic activity in Manitoba, and the expansion will generate even more activity:

• SMC employs 45 full time and 26 seasonal workers in Manitoba.
• Most of the harvest and transportation contractors, 100 balers and 50 truckers, are local growers and custom operators.
• The company spends over $8 million per year on goods, services and wages in Manitoba.
• SMC produces approximately 30,000 tonnes of tow (bast fibre for pulp and paper) annually that is shipped to its parent company's specialty paper mill in New Jersey.
• SMC also produces approximately 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes of flax shives that is used for horse bedding, soil erosion control and biofuel.

Completion of the expansion will allow the company to develop new products and access new markets providing additional revenue and creating new value chain businesses and jobs for Manitoba. For example, the new shive screening facility will create five new jobs and spur the development of fibre based, value-added businesses in the biocomposite, nutraceutical and textile sectors.

Up in Smoke

For years, SMC has shipped the processed flax fibre to Schweitzer-Mauduit International’s New Jersey pulp mill, where it was used in the manufacture of cigarette papers.  However, Archibald says that declining demand for cigarettes has resulted in a decline in demand for the flax-based paper and for SMC’s flax fibre.  As a result, he says that SMC is now focusing on green products.

Another benefit of the expanded processing capabilities is the reduction of flax straw burning.  Flax straw was traditionally burnt rather than returned to the land, because it is slow to decompose and difficult to incorporate into the soil.  Burning of straw has become more stringently controlled and highly regulated, and less acceptable to the general public. 

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Flax Facts
The potential for expanding the value-added flax fibre chain is large:

• SMC contracts 300,000 acres of flax straw annually, out of 1 to 2 million acres of flax grown in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
• SMC processes 100,000 tonnes of flax straw annually.
• 32,000 tonnes of straw fibre produced by SMC.
• 70,000 tonnes of flax shives produced by SMC.
• Total processing by three commercial processors on the Prairies is between 100,000 to 250,000 tonnes annually.
• Farmers are paid $5 per tonne for their flax straw.
• Processing companies bale and transport flax straw, eliminating additional farmer costs of straw disposal.
• The average flax crop yields 20 bushels per acre of seed and 0.5 tonne per acre of flax straw.