Less Finnish food aid being delivered to Russia

Customs problems and improved Russian economy reduces demand relief

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Deliveries of food aid from Finland to Russian Karelia have declined in recent years. Most such aid activity is in the hands of individual volunteers and small organisations.
     The declining trend is attributed to Russia’s improved economic situation and the imposition of tighter customs regulations. Today an individual traveller is allowed to bring 35 kg. of goods a month into Russia tax free.
     Complications involving Russian customs authorities have led many volunteers to stop delivering food donations.
     
Large volunteer organisations, such as the Finnish Red Cross and Finnchurchaid, the aid organisation of the Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church, stopped sending food to Karelia already in the 1990s, when the food shortage in the area had eased somewhat.
     Neither organisation sees a need for large-scale food exports to the area.
     “Undoubtedly there are groups of people there who still do not have enough food, but we feel that supporting local development work is a more efficient way to help”, says Outi Pärnänen, head of communications for the Finnish Red Cross.
      Helena Manninen-Visuri, the acting director of the international work of Finnchurchaid. agrees.
     “People’s standard of living has improved, and the welfare work of local church congregations has developed in such a way that they are better capable of helping themselves. It is a more sustainable solution than external humanitarian aid.”
     
On Wednesday, the Russian state run newspaper Rossiskaya Gazeta accused Finns of “poisoning” Russians in Estonia with spoiled food delivered to Estonia as humanitarian assistance.
     The accusation is based on a story in a weekend supplement of the Tampere-based newspaper Aamulehti, which reported that food stores were donating goods which had passed their “best before” date to organisations sending aid to Estonia.
     
Most of the food aid sent from Finland to Russia also comprises goods donated by retailers.
      Meri Kulmala of the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki points out that a more sensible model for supplying food aid would be to buy the food in Russia, because it would also benefit local merchants and producers.
     “It is important that the supply of aid stems from the concrete needs of the local people, and not a rubbish dump mentality”, Kulmala says.
     
Outi Pärnänen does not believe that the delivery of food aid would be particularly harmful for Russian self-sufficiency, or the development of aid work in that country.
     “If the aid is based on established cooperative relationships, I would not see any major problems with it.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Russian newspaper: Spoiled Finnish food poisons poor in Estonia (7.8.2008)

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