Russian oligarch plans sales of reindeer meat to Lapland

Roman Abramovich pays short visit to Rovaniemi on behalf of Chukotka herders

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By Niina Pasula in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland
     
      A group of around a dozen men emerge from the Lapin Liha meat processing plant in Rovaniemi, wearing coveralls and with heads covered with white disposable hats. In the middle of the group walks Roman Arkadievich Abramovich, Russian oil billionaire and one of the richest men in the world.
      Abramovich, who also numbers among his interests the Governorship of the Autonomous District of Chukotka in the Russian Far East, has ambitious plans to develop that remote area's reindeer husbandry and help the local population's fragile economy.
     
The purpose of his short trip to Rovaniemi last week was to get a grasp of the methods used in a modern reindeer slaughterhouse and simultaneously to see what scope there might be for the sale of Russian reindeer meat to Finland's largest processor, Lapin Liha.
      "We would have nothing against buying in meat from Russia. At present we use Finnish-raised reindeer almost entirely, but demand for the products is greater than the supply we can get our hands on", explains Lapin Liha Chairman Armas Kristo.
      Thus far the big stumbling-block is that the EU has not granted approval for the Chukotka facility to export its meat into the Union's markets.
      The factory in the Far East only started operations in December of last year.
     
Abramovich's motives in the reindeer department are something of an enigma, since the billionaire has systematically refused to grant interviews.
      Nevertheless, in the Chukotka region he is regarded as a huge benefactor, among other things because resurrecting the area's depressed reindeer husbandry gives a boost to the local economy. He has also ploughed a decent-sized chunk of his massive fortune into developing the region's infrastructure and schools since becoming governor in 2000.
     
Roman Abramovich flew in to Rovaniemi on his private jet on the evening of Sunday 22nd April.
      He was a couple of hours behind schedule, as he refused to travel before the afternoon's Premier League football match was over. If we know little else of Abramovich's business interests, his ownership of Chelsea FC is certainly well-documented. Chelsea were playing an important Premiership fixture away to Newcastle that Sunday.
     
The magnate and his party spent the night at Hotel Santa Claus in Rovaniemi.
      Abramovich also managed to have a late dinner with the Lapland Province Governor Hannele Pokka in the hotel's Gaissa Restaurant.
      Then, too, the subject across the table was Finnish reindeer and its economic role.
      "We have met several times, most recently three years ago. He is just the same as before, quiet and modest. When we went to Lapin Liha I had to point out specifically to our hosts which one of the visiting party was the top man", describes Pokka.
     
In his jeans and grey pullover, the diffidently smiling Abramovich certainly does not immediately give off the aura of someone at the sharp end of the "Forbes List" of the wealthiest people on the planet.
      "I asked Abramovich whether I really had the honour of talking to the seventh-richest man in the world. He replied that according to the rumour-mill he had also set foot on the surface of the Moon, and that that wasn't true, either", laughs Armas Kristo.
      Abramovich and his party flew back to his present home in London on Monday at around lunchtime. The short trip to Lapland ended with a visit to the Lapin Liha factory shop, where the visitors picked up bagfuls of dried and cold-smoked reindeer delicacies.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.4.2007

More on this subject:
 WHO? The richest Russian - and a man to Putin's liking

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Reindeer meat is the tender, tasty, and nutritional fare of the North (9.11.2004)

Links:
  Lapin Liha
  Roman Abramovich (Wikipedia)

NIINA PASULA / Helsingin Sanomat