# Where does linseed come from?

Source: Commodity Origins, https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/linseed/ — data JSON: https://commodityorigins.com/data/commodities/linseed.json — license CC BY 4.0 (upstream data keeps its license; see Sources below).

Linseed comes mainly from Russia, which produced 1.2 million tonnes in 2024, 39% of the world's 3 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). Kazakhstan (25%), China (9.3%) and Canada (8.6%) follow; the top five together supply 86%. The biggest exporter of linseed (HS 1204) is Russia (38% of world export value in 2024, CEPII BACI). Flax is a cool-season annual that ripens on a short summer with modest rain and tolerates thin soil, so the oilseed form has settled on the steppe of Russia and Kazakhstan and the Canadian prairies, with China and India growing it for home use.

*The seed of the flax plant, crushed for a drying oil used in paint and linoleum and eaten whole as flaxseed.* Also called: flaxseed, flax, linseed oil.

## Where does linseed come from?

| Rank | Country | Production 2024 (tonnes) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia | 1.2 million | 39% |
| 2 | Kazakhstan | 759,591 | 25% |
| 3 | China | 280,000 | 9.3% |
| 4 | Canada | 257,974 | 8.6% |
| 5 | India | 112,693 | 3.8% |
| 6 | Ethiopia | 82,000 | 2.7% |
| 7 | Ukraine | 66,160 | 2.2% |
| 8 | United States | 61,470 | 2% |
| 9 | France | 39,620 | 1.3% |
| 10 | United Kingdom | 31,038 | 1% |
| | Rest of world | 0 | 4.3% |
| | World | 3 million | 100% |

Source: FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products (QCL), 2024.

In 2024 Russia produced 1.2 million tonnes, 39% of the world's 3 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). Kazakhstan followed with 25%, then China (9.3%), Canada (8.6%) and India (3.8%). The top five account for 86%, 53 countries reported output and 4.3% came from outside the top ten. World production changed +13% over the ten years to 2024 and +10% on the previous year.

Two naming points matter. FAOSTAT calls the crop linseed, as does the paint trade, while food labels almost always say flaxseed; they are the same seed from the same species. The real distinction is between short, branched varieties bred for seed and the tall, unbranched varieties grown for the bast fiber that becomes linen, a separate crop centred on France, Belgium and Belarus.

Oilseed flax has moved decisively eastward. Canada was the classic exporter, growing it on the prairies in rotation with wheat and canola. Russia and Kazakhstan have since expanded planting hard on the steppe, and now supply most of what crosses a border. Chinese and Indian crops are large but mostly consumed at home.


## Who exports and imports linseed?

### Exporters of linseed (HS 1204), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia | $471.5 million | 38% |
| 2 | Kazakhstan | $239.7 million | 19% |
| 3 | Canada | $151.9 million | 12% |
| 4 | Belgium | $72.1 million | 5.8% |
| 5 | Poland | $66.6 million | 5.4% |
| 6 | Ukraine | $38.9 million | 3.1% |
| 7 | India | $28.9 million | 2.3% |
| 8 | Netherlands | $25.1 million | 2% |
| 9 | France | $14.4 million | 1.2% |
| 10 | Germany | $13.1 million | 1.1% |
| 11 | United Kingdom | $11.8 million | 0.9% |
| 12 | Czechia | $10.7 million | 0.9% |
| 13 | United States | $10.3 million | 0.8% |
| 14 | Austria | $10.2 million | 0.8% |
| 15 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $10.2 million | 0.8% |

### Importers of linseed (HS 1204), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $349.6 million | 28% |
| 2 | Belgium | $276.6 million | 22% |
| 3 | Germany | $111 million | 8.9% |
| 4 | United States | $106.6 million | 8.6% |
| 5 | Poland | $71.4 million | 5.7% |
| 6 | Netherlands | $51.1 million | 4.1% |
| 7 | France | $36.4 million | 2.9% |
| 8 | Italy | $28.9 million | 2.3% |
| 9 | Austria | $20.2 million | 1.6% |
| 10 | United Kingdom | $17.4 million | 1.4% |
| 11 | Latvia | $16.9 million | 1.4% |
| 12 | Afghanistan | $16.2 million | 1.3% |
| 13 | Canada | $13.7 million | 1.1% |
| 14 | Czechia | $11.4 million | 0.9% |
| 15 | Russia | $10.1 million | 0.8% |

Source: CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601).

Russia was the largest exporter of linseed (HS 1204) in 2024 with 38% of world export value, ahead of Kazakhstan (19%), on world trade of $1.2 billion (CEPII BACI). China was the largest importer with 28%.

Two kinds of buyer sit behind those import figures. China crushes for oil and meal on its own account. Belgium, with 22%, is a processing and re-export hub rather than a final market: European crushers and the linoleum industry pull seed in, press it, and send oil and meal onward.

The trade is small next to the major oilseeds, which is part of why it moves so sharply. A change in one origin's export policy, or one destination's specification, can redirect a large share of a trade this size, with no futures contract anywhere to absorb the shock.


## What does linseed cost?

### How it is priced

There is no futures market and no free public benchmark price for linseed, so this site quotes none. Canadian growers sell to grain companies and crushers on cash contracts, often priced as a basis to canola, since the two compete for the same acres. In Russia and Kazakhstan exporters buy the crop for shipment to China and Europe and price it in dollars against those destinations.

Contracts specify oil content, moisture and dockage, and for Europe the absence of unapproved genetic material, a clause dating from a contamination episode that has outlived it. Food-grade seed for milling and bakery is bought on cleanliness and color and pays a premium over crushing grade. Publicly there is customs data and, in Canada, cash bids, and nothing like a world quotation.


## What moves the price of linseed?

### Acreage competition

Flax competes for land with canola, wheat and sunflower and yields less per hectare than any of them. Growers plant it when the price ratio justifies it or when it suits a rotation, so acreage, and therefore supply, swings far more than demand does.

### Chinese crushing demand

One country takes more than a quarter of world imports and crushes it for oil and meal, so its buying decides where Black Sea and prairie seed goes. Overland rail into China has grown as a route, shortening the journey from Kazakhstan and western Siberia.

### Black Sea export policy

Russia has used export duties on oilseeds to keep raw material at home for its crushers, including a temporary duty on flax seed in 2022. Because one origin supplies a large share of traded seed, a duty or licensing change reroutes the market within a season.

### Substitution by synthetic binders

Linseed oil dries by oxidizing and polymerizing into a solid film, which is what made oil paint, putty and linoleum possible. Synthetic alkyds and water-based emulsions took most of that market in the twentieth century, so industrial demand now grows only at the specialist end.

### Food demand for flaxseed

Milled flaxseed sells on its alpha-linolenic acid and fiber content into bread, cereal and supplements, and whole seed goes into feed marketed for omega-3 enriched eggs and milk. That demand pays better than crushing and has grown while industrial use has not.

## How is linseed produced?

Flax is a slender annual, sown in spring on the prairies and the steppe or in winter in India, and cut three to four months later. Oilseed varieties are short and branched to carry more capsules; fiber varieties are tall and unbranched to give long stems. The crop is combined like a cereal, though the tough stems are hard on machinery and the straw is slow to break down.

Crushing is straightforward pressing, with solvent extraction for industrial volume. Cold-pressed oil is used where flavour or raw character matters, in food and in fine art and wood finishing. Industrial grades are refined, and boiled linseed oil is not boiled but treated with metallic driers to speed the oxidation that hardens it.

Seed for food is cleaned, sometimes roasted, and milled, because whole flaxseed passes through the gut largely undigested. Milled seed goes rancid quickly, since the same unsaturation that makes the oil dry also makes it oxidize, so it is stabilized, packed under nitrogen or kept cold.


## What is linseed used for?

The oil's defining property is that it dries. Exposed to air it oxidizes and polymerizes into a tough film, which made it the binder of traditional oil paint, putty, varnish, wood finishes and linoleum, a name taken from the linseed oil and cork it is made from. Synthetics replaced most of that, but artists' materials, heritage restoration and natural flooring still rely on it.

As food the same seed is sold as flaxseed for its alpha-linolenic acid and fiber, whole or milled into bread, cereal and supplements. The press cake is a valued protein feed, especially for horses and dairy cattle, and the coarse straw is usable in particleboard, specialty papers and insulation.


## Supply chain and chokepoints

The chain is short: farm to elevator or trader, then either to a crusher or into containers and bulk vessels for export. Canadian seed moves by rail to Thunder Bay and Vancouver; Russian and Kazakh seed goes by rail to Black Sea and Baltic ports and increasingly overland eastward.

Belgium's position among importers reflects European crushing and linoleum manufacture rather than consumption: seed arrives, oil and meal leave. Seed is dry, dense and non-perishable, though the pressed oil must be kept from air and heat, because it begins to polymerize on its own.

The structural exposure is concentration and policy sensitivity. Exports come from a few Black Sea and prairie origins, and in a trade this small an export duty, a rail bottleneck or a tightened border specification can redirect world flows within a season.


## Timeline

- 1860: Frederick Walton patents oxidized linseed oil, then linoleum. The 1860 patent on oxidizing the oil and the 1863 patent on the flooring named after it created the largest industrial market the crop has ever had. (https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Frederick_Walton)
- 1950s: Synthetic alkyd and emulsion paints displace linseed oil binders. Faster-drying synthetic resins took most of the paint and coatings market, and industrial demand for linseed oil never returned to its earlier scale. (https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/soybeans-and-oil-crops)
- 1996: A genetically modified flax variety is approved in Canada, then withdrawn. CDC Triffid was registered and later deregistered without ever being grown commercially, which is why its reappearance in exports was a regulatory rather than a safety problem. (https://cban.ca/gmos/products/not-on-the-market/flax/)
- 2009: Triffid material is detected in Canadian flax shipped to Europe. The European Union allows no unapproved genetic material, so the finding closed Canada's largest market, cut prairie acreage sharply and imposed years of testing protocols. (https://cban.ca/gmos/products/not-on-the-market/flax/)
- 2010s: Russia and Kazakhstan expand linseed planting. Steppe farms took up a short-season crop that tolerates thin soils and sells for export, and the Black Sea displaced Canada as the main source of traded seed. (https://www.fao.org/markets-and-trade/commodities-overview/en)
- 2022-03: Russia imposes a temporary export duty on oil flax seed. A duty on the largest exporting origin held seed back for domestic crushers and redirected flows, showing how sensitive a small trade is to one government's decision. (https://globaltradealert.org/intervention/103240-russian-federation-temporary-increase-in-the-export-duty-on-flaxseed-oil)

## Frequently asked questions

### is linseed the same as flaxseed

Yes. They are the same seed from the same plant, and the word used depends on the industry. FAOSTAT and the paint and coatings trade say linseed; food labels, supplements and bakery say flaxseed. This site follows the agricultural statistics and calls the crop linseed throughout.

### which country produces the most linseed

Russia produced 1.2 million tonnes in 2024, 39% of the world's 3 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). Kazakhstan was second with 25% and China third with 9.3%. Most traded seed now comes from the Black Sea rather than from Canada.

### what is linseed oil used for

Industrially, as a binder that hardens: traditional oil paint, putty, varnish, wood finishes and linoleum flooring, which takes its name from the oil. As food it is sold as flaxseed oil for its alpha-linolenic acid. The meal left after pressing is a protein feed for horses and dairy cattle.

### why does linseed oil dry

Because it is unusually unsaturated. Exposed to air, the fatty acids oxidize and cross-link into a solid film rather than simply evaporating, which is what a drying oil means. Boiled linseed oil is not boiled but treated with metallic driers that speed the same reaction up.

### why did canada lose its european flax market

In 2009 traces of CDC Triffid, a genetically modified variety that had been deregistered and never grown commercially, were found in Canadian flax shipped to Europe. The European Union permits no unapproved genetic material, so the market closed, prairie acreage fell sharply and long testing protocols followed.

### what is the difference between linseed and linen flax

Different varieties of the same species grown for different parts of the plant. Oilseed types are short and branched to carry more seed capsules; fiber types are tall and unbranched so the stems yield long bast fibers for linen. The two are grown in different countries and traded separately.

## Sources

- FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products (QCL), 2024. License: CC BY 4.0 (FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use). https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL
- CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601), BACI HS22 V202601, fetched 6 September 2026. License: Etalab Open Licence 2.0. https://www.cepii.fr/CEPII/en/bdd_modele/bdd_modele_item.asp?id=37

Text last reviewed 2026-09-05. Cite as: Commodity Origins, "Where does linseed come from?", https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/linseed/.