Sampo Group CEO major beneficiary of agricultural subsidies

Björn Wahlroos

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Björn Wahlroos, CEO and major owner of the Sampo Group, is also one of Finland's largest recipients of agricultural subsidies. In 2004, Wahlroos, who owns some farmland, was granted more than EUR 156,000 in various subsidies.
      Wahlroos has been ranked as Finland's third-richest person.
      The figure comes from a statement submitted to the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) by Wahlroos's home municipality Halikko, which granted the part-time farmer four different types of farming subsidies.
     
About 70,000 Finnish farmers are beneficiaries of agricultural subsidies.
      The issue of making farm subsidies public has long been a matter of controversy. The Finnish Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK) had opposed making the information public.
      However, the Supreme Administrative Court has ruled that information on agricultural subsidies are a matter of public record, and last month the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry gave local authorities instructions to disclose information on individual subsidies.
      Wahlroos's agricultural supports prompted debate already a year ago, when the issue was raised by a YLE current affairs programme.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish Sampo Bank Group to be sold to Danish Danske Bank for EUR 4.05 billion (9.11.2006)

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