Organic Food Finland is an Export Group specialised in exporting organic products from Finland. The best short way to describe our activity is that we (Erkki & Lhassan) act as outsourced organic export managers for the companies involved. We always represent the companies directly as the companies Export Manager would - we don't trade in their products.
This makes sense because exporting organic products is a special field of activity and as a business different from the companies' domestic business. We at OFF have long experience and deep understanding of organics and the organic market and good networks which we constantly develop. The companies benefit from this and in the end of the day also customers benefit. OFF is your contact point for organic products from Finland!
Each year we talk with new companies about joining the group. These might be organic food manufacturers who feel they should expand into export or mainstream manufacturers who think of expanding into organics. This year two new companies decided to join the group. Both happen to be on the Finnish West Coast:
Boströms Bakery is a bakery company specialised in swiss rolls, muffins, cakes and cookies for which it has highly efficient production lines. Recently they have developed organic muffins which will be the starting point for the organic export activities. The delicious muffins come in three tastes: chocolate, vanilla and lemon but more flavours can be developed as requested. The products can be marketed both as private label to retailers and as branded products.
Greenfinn's fantastic products bring us an extension in the berry line where Maustaja with jams and Kiantama with wild berries are already represented. Greenfinn's products are 100% cold pressed juices made from the nutrition-rich berries from Finland. Most noteworthy, Greenfinns is a pioneer in organic Sea Buckthorn which is organically farmed by them, but the range includes also wild bilberry, mountain cranberry (lingonberry), wild cranberry, black currant and aronia juices. The products will be marketed under the Napapiiri Organics brand.
8 companies participate in
Organic Food Finland at the moment: please visit our web-site for more information.
Labels: berry, juice, muffins, organic
Bad weather
Two years in a row led us to think that the greenhouse effect means that summers in Finland are ideal for holidays but a little too dry for farming. This summer shows that it is not as simple as that: First we had a dry spring which meant that only cereal fields that were sown early enough sprouted normally and got a good start while the rest - and that means most - didn't sprout until the first rain came along a few weeks later. Then we got a rainy and relatively cool summer - which definitely was not ideal for holidays - and meant slow development of the crops. (Personally I was in the north of Norway, Sweden and Finland most of July with day-temperatures between 12-15 C. So not too warm but that is not why you go in that direction anyway. Have a look at my
picture blog.)
So now it is already September and only a fraction of the cereals have been harvested. Nothing has been lost yet but if it rains too much we loose quality and in the worst scenario the farmers will not be able to harvest. Well - we are hoping for an Indian summer...
On Monday and Tuesday we were driving around 'Pohjanmaa' on the Finnish west coast, the weather was half-cloudy and nice and harvesters were to be seen almost on all fields. But it was mainly barley and some rye that was harvested: wheat and oats still have to wait. So not much to be said about availability or prices of organic milled products yet (oat flakes, wheat flour etc). Of course the weather has the same effect on the other crops: potato, rape seed and even wild berries. Everything is a few weeks late.
Labels: organic oats wheat wild berries
Finland’s organic industry
Check this report on the organic market in Finland by Organic-Market.info.
Finland’s organic industry is still struggling to reach 1%Labels: organic food Finland market development
Organic Control System in Finland
The strange thing about the EU organic regulation (currently 2092/91) is that while it gives us the standard for organic farming and processing it doesn't really say how control and certification should be organized. At first site it seems that you have certification bodies (CB) in each country that have taken upon them to take care of the certification task. But with a closer look it is not quite so simple. I'm not really a specialist in this but I would say you can put EU countries in a few groups:
1) several private CB's and strong private standard(s) (example: the UK, Germany, Sweden)
2) several private CB's certifying mainly to EU standards (France, Italy)
3) one semi-private CB certifying mainly to EU standards (the Netherlands)
4) several regional authorities responsible for certification (Spain)
5) central governmental authority responsible for certification (Denmark, Finland)
I am not really aware where the new member states go, but I presume mainly 2) and 5). At least Estonia is in 5).
An interesting point is weather foreign certifiers are allowed in the country. Recently there was news that pressure from the European Commission piled over Austria to allow non-Austrian CB's to operate in Austria. While reading the news I wondered how come Finland is not sued for this? Well, I suppose it's because we don't have private CB's in Finland in the first place.
There are pros and cons to a governmental certification system. The pros are that it's relatively well organized and cost-effective. In Finland we feel that one of the pros is that government officials are more reliable than inspectors from private organizations. This is some kind of cultural thing: in Finland we actually trust government officials. Transparency International has rated Finland as the least corrupted country in the world - so actually you can trust them! But when we are in the export business we should realize that the image of government officials isn't the same everywhere. Actually a private certification might be more trustworthy.
But there are cons and therefore I have personally opposed a governmental control system since 1994 (that's when it was started). The main problem was that control of the whole system shifted from private (the organic movement) to government. Currently the bigger problem is lack of flexibility and customer-orientation. The authorities do what law (EU regulation) requires from them and that's it. If our companies need private certifications or foreign governmental certifications (NOP, JAS) they can't and won't help us (it's not their business). So we have the EU certification and if we need something else - well that's our problem.
to be continued....
In the meantime please comment.
Labels: certification, farming, Finland, organic, Organics, standards
Organic Network Group on LinkedIn
Organic Hello,
You are invited to join the Organic Network Group on LinkedIn. The Organic Network in LinkedIn is a global network for people active in any part of the organic movement, industry and business including farming, food and non-food . The goal of this group is to help members:
• Reach other members of the Organic Network
• Accelerate careers/business through referrals from Organic Network Group members
• Know more than a name – view rich professional profiles from fellow Organic Network Group members
I have founded this group on 18.4.2008. Please join yourself and forward this invitation to others you know to be active in the organic movement and industry.
Here’s the link to join.At the moment I will have to approve everyone who joins, but I will try to do that as quickly as I can.
Hope to see you in the group,
Erkki Pöytäniemi, Organic Food Finland
— The Organic Network Group Team
www.organic-finland.com
Napapiiri Organics is launched - in Finland
"Napapiiri Organics" is the joint brand that we have developed in the Organic Food Finland export group. It is a new brand developed for export but it is also an attempt to extend the cooperation between our companies into brand-building. So instead of each company developing its own brand we do it together. The brand is based on the strengths of Finnish organic products - be they cultivated or wild-picked - the strong connection Finns have to nature and the Nordic image. For more visit the Napapiiri organics
web-site.
The first products that have been developed in the brand are the berry-based sugar-free jams (bilberry, mountain cranberry, wild cranberry, cloudberry, sea buckthorn and Tarya's mix). These have been on the Finnish market since last summer through the organic wholesaler Makrobios.
but now they are actually launched in the supermarket multiples. The
Prisma hypermarkets, larger
S-Supermarkets,
Stockmann department stores and
Euromarket hypermarkets will have the products in their range starting 1st May. We'll see soon enough how our export concept works on the domestic market. The Napapiiri Organics Cloudberry jam already won the "Organic Product of the Year" price in Finland in February.
On the export side our main focus is the UK where we will be presenting the Napapiiri Organics jams at the Natural Products show on Community Foods stand giving tastings etc. Also other Napapiiri Organics products which are in the pipeline are presented: the berry flavored oatmeal pouches (bilberry, sea buckthorn) and dried sugar-free berries (bilberry, mountain lingonberry). We are also focusing on Sweden and we are already selling to Malaysia.
Picture: our key account manager Lhassan El Farkoussi besides the Napapiiri Organics showcase at BioFach in February.
Labels: berries, berry, bilberry, cloudberry, jams, Napapiiri, Organics, porridge, preserves, wild
Organic Oats 2007 crop
Of the organic cereals grown in Finland oats are by far the most important. According to
Evira statistics organic oats was grown on 19.583 ha in Finland which is only 300 ha more than in 2006. However the total yield might be double 2006 due to the record low harvest that year. But is this enough? I am afraid not. The dynamism of the market is difficult to grasp and therefore nobody seems to know how much will enter the market. Part of the harvest is fed to animals on-farm or sold to neighbors for that purpose. Part of the crop is harvested on small farms and there is no point in transporting it over any distance. For the organic oats that does enter the market there are several buyers, some trading it to the domestic industry but most looking at the export market. Helsinki Mills is buying directly from farmers trying to capture as much of the oats as possible for processing in Finland. So the farmers situation should be quite good. The prices have increased to levels that have not been experienced before during Finland's EU membership. Prices are up to 2,5 times higher than in 2005. So there should be an incentive for more farmers to go organic. Also conventional oats (as all cereals) price is increasing but nevertheless the price difference is a healthy 100+ €/t.
Sweden, Germany and Canada seem to have experienced average oat harvests on similar acreage as 2006. The main problem would seem to be that the market is growing strongly but production is not. We need more organic farmers. The interesting question which remains to be seen is how farmers react to this clear market signal. If farmers consider converting to organics they will naturally be wondering what the organic oats price will be in 2010. Who can tell? In the meantime we are unfortunately not able to meet the demand.
