French farmers may halve flax fibre area as demand for linen shrinks

PARIS (Reuters) - French farmers may reduce by half next year the area they devote to flax fibre, reversing a decade of growth for the crop used to make linen as the industry adjusts to a drop in textile demand due to the novel coronavirus epidemic.France is the world's largest grower of flax fibre and part of a northwest European belt also covering Belgium and the Netherlands that accounts for over 80% of global supply of the crop."Growers have been advised to cut by half their flax fibre area..