We use the fibre from this plant to produce the ultra-comfortable linen clothes. These tiny brown-coloured seeds come from the flax plant. On this weight loss journey, it is important that you add a few superfoods that will help you along the way.įlaxseeds, most fitness experts would suggest, is one such superfood you must include in your diet. However, the key to losing weight is in understanding the too many dos and don’ts of the best weight loss exercises and the diet you follow. Raw material prices are growing but the relatively low cost of labour still makes Lithuanian linen competitive on foreign markets, she added.Fitness experts say you can reach your weight loss goals faster if you follow a healthy diet and a disciplined exercise routine. "Linen has become too expensive for Lithuanians," says Jurgita Senulyte. "Made in Lithuania remains a mark of quality."īut foreigners are typically the only group charmed by Lithuanian linen - less than five percent of Linas's output stays in the country, where it is sold largely to tourists. "At every fair we attend, we have to answer people asking if the product was woven or sown in Lithuania," said Vaitkus. "Growing and processing flax used to be a traditional activity," says Vidas Vaitkus, head of a company producing linens and other products from flax since 2002.įollowing the example of local rivals, his company sells linen cloth products to France, Italy or Japan. "We used to have a facility for turning flax into linen fibres, but in the end it has turned out more profitable to import fibres on spools, says Jurgita Senulyte, a designer at Linas. Last year, the plant, based in Panevezys in northern Lithuania, turned out 2.5 million metres of fabric, but it has relied on imports from neighbouring Belarus for the past three years. Linas, the country's oldest factory producing flax-fibre textiles, celebrates its 55th anniversary this year. ![]() ![]() Still, the production of linen cloth in Lithuania keeps booming. "Every year, we plant 300-500 different seeds to preserve the plant." "Lithuanian flax might disappear completely if we stopped our activities," says Zofija Jankauskiene from the centre. The only exception is the Upyte farm research centre in central Lithuania, whose staff plant linseed every year simply to keep it alive. ![]() "Nobody grows flax any longer, it's no longer profitable," said Vasiliauskiene. "Subsidies have now fallen to 675 litas (195 euros, $257) per hectare," says Beruta Vasiliauskiene, head of Jubarko Linu Verslas, one of the last farms to have grown flax in recent years.īut the 50 hectares once sown with linseed have gradually been replaced and the farm will not plant a single seed this year.īefore the Baltic state joined the EU in 2004, public aid was almost three times higher. Looking back with nostalgia at a time when linseed was in full bloom across 21,500 hectares some 20 years ago, local farmers and producers point a finger at the European Union as the culprit behind the decline. Local farmers did not plant a single hectare of flax in 2010 to be used for textile production - a strong sector for business in the Baltic state of 3.5 million people. ![]() Now, fibres produced from the plants to make Lithuania's popular linen cloth must be imported, mainly from France, Italy and Belarus. The traditional plant has also inspired a very popular first name - Linas for men, Lina for women.īut despite being celebrated in Lithuanian folklore, pale blue linseed flowers no longer carpet meadows from spring through to early summer. Tourists strolling the streets of Lithuania's capital Vilnius will immediately notice the word "linas", the Lithuanian word for linseed or flax, posted in large letters above shop windows.
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