North and able to feed itself

Finland is the northernmost country in the world that is able to produce enough food to be self-sufficient. The country is self-sufficient in basic foodstuffs, and food produced in Finland’s northern climate is clean and safe, because far less pesticides and animal medication is used than elsewhere in Europe.The growing season is 180 days in southern Finland and 120 days in northern Finland, compared with 220–365 in Continental Europe.

Finland has less than 70,000 farms, 41,700 being arable farms, 16,500 dairy farms, 5,000 other cattle farms, 3,400 pig farms, 2,100 horse breeding farms, 1,000 poultry farms and 1,000 farms with sheep and goats. The number of dairy cows has fallen by half in the past 15 years, but dairy production volumes have remained almost unchanged.

The average size of a Finnish farm is 33.3 hectares. Most farms are privately owned by individual farmers. Finland has 0.54 livestock units per hectare, while the EU-15 average is 0.89, that of Denmark 1.71 and the Netherlands 3.07. More than one in four farms engages in other business operations too, e.g. contracting, tourist services, food processing, or wood processing.

Finland has special permission from the European Union to maintain a lower maximum limit of cadmium in fertilizer than the rest of Europe. Animal feeds must be salmonella-free and growth-promoting antibiotics are not used as a feed additive. Finland has the lowest pesticide consumption in Europe, using only 0.8 kg of active substance per hectare, compared with an EU-15 average of 4.5 kg per hectare. The amount used in Finland is thus only one tenth of the amount used in Portugal and Greece, for example. The credit for this is due in part to the cold winters in Finland, which kill pests and keep plant diseases under control, but the expertise of Finnish farmers is also an important element.

The food industry is Finland’s third biggest employer. The main branches of production are meat processing, dairy products, baked goods and the soft drinks industry. Finland exports cheese, butter, alcoholic beverages, pork and chocolate.