First blueberry day exceeds expectations for Thai pickers

A large number of foreign berry-pickers have again arrived in Savukoski in the north of Finland to pick wild berries in order to earn extra money.
      Thai berry-picker Chuchart Lotaisong smiles contentedly amid his 15 boxes of blueberries at a weighing station at an old school in Savukoski on Monday. His first day in the forest proved successful, and he managed to pick a total of 173 kilos of blueberries, earning more than EUR 200 in a single day.
      Part of the pickers arrived in Savukoski’s Kuosku village already more than a week ago. While waiting for the local blueberries to ripen, they picked cloudberries. However, the cloudberry crop is poor this season, and their yields were small.
      "Nevertheless, I am pleased. I managed to pick five kilos of cloudberries and got as much as ten euros a kilo for them", says Khamphol Khatum. This is his second summer in Savukoski’s forests.
      This season wild blueberries fetch about EUR 1.20 per kilo.
     
The majority of the Thais have been invited to Finland by Riitan Herkku, a food processing company in Mustasaari. Riitan Herkku does not buy cloudberries, but the pickers have been able to sell their berries to other buyers.
      Another large food processing company buying berries from foreign pickers is Lapin Liha, who started systematic berry-picking already last week. This year the company has invited more than 600 foreign berry-pickers to Lapland, and the last group is to arrive in Finland today.
      "We have tried to schedule the arrival of berry-pickers so that they can get to the forest right away", reports Managing Director Jukka Kristo from Lapin Liha.
      Kristo notes further that the pickers who arrived at the end of July have found cloudberries and managed to earn a reasonable amount of money already.
     
Last year some Ukrainian berry-pickers had problems as a result of the unusually dry summer. The foreign berry-pickers were not prepared for the prospect of having lower earnings than anticipated, and they felt that they had been shafted by empty promises. This year efforts have been made to avoid similar problems by cutting out some agents and middlemen.
      "The goal is to be able to organise berry-picking directly with pickers themselves in the future", says Kristo.
      Jari Huttunen from Korvatunturin Marja, a company affiliated with Riitan Herkku, would have liked to wait for another couple of days before starting the blueberry picking season.
      "The berries are not quite ripe yet. However, we could not wait longer as the competitor's pickers set off already last week", Huttunen reports.
      Moreover, the pickers themselves could hardly have been kept away from the forests any longer. On Monday, vans full of blueberries are pulling up at the weighing station all the time.
      This year’s blueberry crop is good. Even the lingonberry season is expected to be plentiful, continuing until October.
      "The lingonberry yield will be good, as the soil is moist enough and sunny warm weather is being forecast", confirms Kauko Salo from the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla).


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish strawberry growers prefer foreign berry pickers (12.6.2007)
  Thai berry-pickers return home after earning year´s salary in Lapland (4.10.2006)

Links:
  Lapin Liha
  Riitan Herkku
  Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla)