Finland’s Berry Crisis: Prices Rise as Visa Rejections Leave Crops Unpicked

Out of 2,200 seasonal work applications, 1,400 have been turned down so far  for this harvesting season - ministry reported last week. Most of the applications have been processed at the Finnish Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, the main source of seasonal berry pickers.

Small numbers of applications were also submitted in Kazakhstan, Kenya, Vietnam, Nepal and India.

Berry industry groups are furious about the last-minute rejection of foreign pickers' visa applications. They say it's impossible to replace them with domestic workers.

They describe the situation as a crisis and predict that  a few companies are going to shut down.

What Is the Problem

The Foreign Ministry said that it rejected nearly two-thirds of foreign workers’ visa applications largely due to recent revelations of exploitation by Finnish companies.

For several years now, cases of excessive exploitation of workers have been under investigation in Finland and Sweden – the countries known for their wild berries of wild berries.

The term "exploitation" has even been used after revelations of wages that were simply inadequate to ensure  a decent standard of living.

Thai pickers often returned home without any income or even in debt.

A few days ago, the former head of one of Finland's largest berry companies, Polarica, was handed a two-and-a-half-year prison term.

Lapland District Court found  Jukka Kristo and his Thai  business partner Kalyakorn "Durian" Phongphit  guilty of 78 counts of human trafficking.

The victims  were dozens of migrant berry pickers from Thailand.

Company representatives claim they were not given advance warning.  After such a lightning-fast decision there was no way the industry could have anticipated the labor shortfall in time because the harvesting season has already begun.

The Federation of Agricultural Employers (MTA) agrees  that authorities could have announced their decisions much earlier.

Berry entrepreneurs have already appealed to administrative courts this summer due to the negative decisions.

Will the Berries Stay in the Forest?

Yes, says Kristel Nybondas, Managing Director of the Federation of Agricultural Employers MTA, because  there’s no time to organise any other alternative. There aren’t enough hands to do this job.

But the industry is hoping for an improvement in the situation as there are new visa applications from berry pickers.

Are the Finns taking action?

Either way, this year's berries will be more expensive due to their shortage.

Finnish companies now rely solely on their compatriots.

According to law, citizens of the country have the right to pick any amount of wild berries without any fees.

And they do, as usual, pick them – but for their own needs.

According to forecasts, this year’s harvest looks relatively good, so companies predict that people in Finland  will begin selling fresh berries to consumers via social media,  while companies will try to buy from local pickers for industrial use.

Sources: YLE, Royal Thai Embassy in Helsinki, Finland