Horse meat for human consumption is not often available in Finland

Processing of horse meat has ground to halt, as owners are left empty-handed

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Hundreds of horses end their days in a pit behind the stable every year. Particularly in the autumn, when the stables become crowded, older horses have to make way for young foals.
      However, this is just the tip of the iceberg in the chain of events that is the reason for the current dead-end in the processing of horse meat.
      The fact is that slaughtering has become so difficult and expensive in Finland that the owners of horses choose to bury the animals in the ground.
     
In Finland, around 4,000 old horses are put down every year. Only one-fourth of them are slaughtered.
      ”It is a huge amount of wasted food”, says Pauliina Räisänen, an entrepreneur who runs a horse stable in Sotkamo in Eastern Finland.
      The meat of killed horses ends up in the ground as the number of slaughterhouses is small, and they are all located in the same area in Western Finland. In addition, the owner of the horse gets only 20 cents per one kilo of meat.
      ”When I have one large horse slaughtered, I get EUR 100 for it. That sum of money is not enough to cover even the petrol needed for transport”, Räisänen notes.
     
The kilo price collapsed as Finland joined the European Union. Most of the owners would settle for a kilo price of a couple of euros.
      ”However, old breeders still remember those days when the price of a horse amounted to many thousandsw of markka. Today, they are not willing to take their horses to a slaughterhouse before the price is right - which means never”, says secretary Veera Nieminen from Suomen Hippos, the Finnish Trotting and Breeding Association.
      It is being rumoured among Finnish breeders that some of them sell their horses abroad in hopes of higher kilo prices.
      ”To Poland. To Italy. However, nobody is willing to admit it in public”, Pauliina Räisänen notes.
     
A total of around 250,000 kilos of horse meat is produced in Finland annually. At the same time, more than one million kilos of horse meat is imported from abroad.
      Veli-Mikko Niemi, the head of food security at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, is surprised at the situation.
      ”Domestic horse meat has remained on the shelves of speciality shops. How could it be brought to the wider market?” he asks.
      Niemi believes in branding. Horse steaks should become everyman’s food that is available in the neighbourhood shops. Consumers would get excited and the demand and kilo prices would increase.
      Another obstacle for slaughtering could be an ethical one. People may ask whether or not one is allowed to eat horse meat.
      If the breeder says no, he or she gets the highest profit by selling the animal to somebody who wants to buy it for a child who is crazy about horses. However, also such horses are likely to end up before very long in a pit in the backyard.
     
In fact, a horse cannot be buried just anywhere. A burial place is strictly regulated, and a veterinarian’s permission is needed for the burial. Moreover, it is forbidden to dig a large hole in the ground in a designated groundwater area.


Links:
  Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
  Suomen Hippos

Helsingin Sanomat