Finnish small business exports therapeutic peat to Ireland

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A news item concerning an Ähtäri-based small business of four workers specialising in the production of therapeutic peat crossed the news threshold in the British media on New Year’s Eve.
      The reason for the news was that Ireland, one of the world’s largest producers of peat, has had to resort to importing therapeutic peat from Finland, as the country itself lacks the knowhow for devising turf-based skin care treatments.
     
Managing director Heikki Ruha of Ruhajoki Ltd, the company exporting Lehto Peat, a therapeutic peat product originating from a marsh in Central Finland, says the fuss is best described as "a storm in a tea-cup".
      "After all, it was only a 100-kg consignment that we exported to Ireland", Ruha confesses.
      The cooperation with the Irish has been in the making for three years. Now it finally seems there is a possibility for a lasting business connection.
      Previously Ruhajoki Ltd has exported its products to Japan, and there are promising contacts in Sweden and Norway as well. A German connection is also in the pipeline.
     
Mud baths are a centuries-old Central European natural cure treatment form. In fact, mud is well-mouldered peat, the Lehto Peat website educates.
      However, mud baths are not what Ruhajoki Ltd is all about. Instead, the company’s trump card is the thousands of years' old fine peat originating from a depth of over two metres from a marsh owned by Ruha himself. The soft, brown, odourless mass is used for various skin treatments for the entire body, from scalp to feet.
      The packed peat has to be fresh, and it is therefore produced from the bog on a weekly basis in 500-kg consignments.
     
The idea of using peat for skin treatments Ruha got from special researcher Riitta Korhonen of the Geological Survey of Finland more than a decade ago.
      At the time Ruha was selling peat from his marsh for peat-fired energy production.
      The sample lot from Ruha’s land passed the quality requirement tests, and the production of therapeutic peat was launched.
      The products have been further developed at the family’s natural health spa in Seinäjoki.


Links:
  Lehto Peat

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