Along with differentiation and upgraded
products, collaboration
between different actors is a prerequisite for a success of Finnish berry
and mushroom products on international markets. This becomes apparent in
interviews conducted by Pellervo Economic Research among berry and mushroom
wholesalers and processing companies as a part of MULTIEFFORT project financed
by Karelia ENPI CBC. The interviewees estimated that there is a lot of growth and
developmental potential on Finnish natural products sector. Considering raw
material resources in Finland even a substantial growth would be possible.
Collaboration between different actors is well established in certain steps of
the value chain, but should be further developed in others.
Collaboration between pickers, wholesalers and processing companies
seems to be well organized. The Arctic Flavours Association has been founded
already in 1993, and works actively for gathering, processing and use of
natural products. Picking is put into action mainly by wholesalers whereas
berry processing companies do not usually buy berries directly from pickers.
They prefer wholesalers, who freeze berries before delivering them to buyers.
Wholesalers were preferred especially by companies producing special products.
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| Photo: Paula Horne |
The interviewees described berry and mushroom
sector as a small and export driven one. The main export markets of berries and
berry products were Central Europe and Asia. As to mushrooms, Italy is the main
market. The importance of Asia has also grown substantially. Potential markets for
natural products were assessed remarkable in Russia, and the chances of Finnish
natural products were regarded as good there. In order to gain success on the
Russian market products need to be premium ones and clearly differentiated from
competitors’ products.
Export markets present great potential for expansion of the trade.
However, common problems faced by companies were related to investment and
maintenance costs vital to the business. Distant location and company’s small
size were also recognized as problems of many firms. These facts made it
difficult to recruit competent employees, and they also restricted
possibilities to expand operations. Further collaboration between small
companies might alleviate some of these size-related problems.
Another concern faced both in berry and mushroom companies is the
drastic drop of domestic pickers in recent years. This problem was regarded
even more serious in mushroom companies, because exact identification of
mushrooms is crucial in picking. This makes it challenging to use foreign
pickers, because the mushroom species are manifold in Finland. On the other
hand, cross-border cooperation with Russian Karelia might provide a solution
for this problem, because there is a traditionally strong culture of mushroom
picking in Russia, and the mushroom species there are mainly similar to the
Finnish ones.
One
aspect that is not covered by the study report is the need for collaboration
with the local land owners. Widely published conflicts in berry picking could
be partly resolved by better integration of the land owners into the value
chain. Hopefully the industry will be able to expand, not only to bring
business opportunities to the different steps of the value chain, but also to
bring tasty and healthy products to consumers’ tables.
Paula
Horne & Anna-Kaisa Rämö, Pellervo Economic Research PTT
