UNION

Yes — with the caveat that the machine configuration is selected for specific agronomic conditions. The climate of Central and Eastern Europe (cooler and wetter summers than in the classic flax regions of Belgium and France) and the soils of northern Poland require adjustment of retting settings. The Union design — hydraulic three-wheel drive with a tight turning radius, low-pressure tyres, programmable flax-spreading table settings — is by design intended to accommodate adaptation to different field conditions. Regional adaptation of the configuration — retting settings, flax-spreading table parameters, tyres, bale-forming density control — falls within the scope of cooperation with the implementation partner and the flax mills receiving the raw material.

Yes. The GX255 Rafale is a self-propelled baler and can work with swaths formed by other manufacturers' equipment — provided the swath is laid properly, the GX255 pickup works with it. However, full consistency of the field cycle — the best bale quality and the lowest fibre losses — is achieved when the GX220, GX240 and GX255 work together, because pulling and turning directly affect the structure of the swath, which in turn affects the pickup geometry.

RUTHENIA ALBA acts as UNION's strategic partner for the markets of Central and Eastern Europe and selected markets outside Europe — Poland, the Baltic states, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Balkan countries, and selected projects in Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. The traditional market for Union remains France, Belgium and the Netherlands — countries with an unbroken tradition of growing fibre flax since the 19th century. The cooperation between RUTHENIA ALBA and Union opens the way to markets where flax is returning as a position in the rotation after a long break.

Not with the GX220 — it is a puller, and hemp is harvested with a different technology, because hemp is cut rather than pulled up by the roots. The hemp stalk is thicker, woodier and has a deeper root system than the flax stalk, so the pulling step does not apply in this line. The later stage of swath handling is different: the GX240 tedder and the GX255 Rafale baler can work with both flax and hemp, depending on configuration and the harvesting technology adopted, because they turn and bale an already formed swath, regardless of whether the stalk was pulled or cut. Harvesting hemp itself is a separate technological direction — RUTHENIA ALBA is developing it as a standalone solution based on the CRETES × UNION collaboration, with a mounted hemp fibre harvester as the leading machine of this line.

Yes. As a UNION partner, RUTHENIA ALBA runs a spare parts warehouse in Poland for the GX220, GX240 and GX255 machines — pickup belts, hydraulics, DEUTZ engine parts, tyres. Commissioning the machine in the field, the warranty and after-warranty support are carried out on site. The short and narrow field window for flax (3 weeks of pulling, a few days of baling after retting) does not allow waiting for parts from Belgium — that is why we maintain our own warehouse.