Special measures for special circumstances

Finland’s Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Juha Korkeaoja, says that agriculture and forestry are the lifeblood of this most sparsely inhabited EU country. They keep the countryside alive with people and enterprise.
During Finland's EU presidency, Korkeaoja will be hosting an unofficial meeting of the EU ministers of agriculture and officials of the Special Committee on Agriculture in the Northern Finnish city of Oulu in the last week of September. The guest will see with their own eyes that to be able to produce its own food, Finland has to start farming where others leave off.

“There's nothing wrong with the Finnish summer - except that it is too short,” Juha Korkeaoja, himself a cereal producer, says with a smile.


National measures are needed

The climate is a handicap for Finland in comparison with other European countries. The yield level of cereals is lower and unit costs are higher in both crop and livestock production.

A lot of storage space is needed because the storage period is in fact longer than the growing season. In Finland the temperatures stay below zero during the winter months, which places special demands on both farming buildings and transport vehicles.

“In view of the plain facts of geography and climate, I believe everyone can see that we need special national measures in agricultural policy to ensure the competitiveness of our farming sector,” Juha Korkeaoja states in explanation of the special characteristics of Finnish agricultural policy.

“We do not want to distort competition on the common market and national support schemes are used only where it is absolutely necessary.”

Juha Korkeaoja stresses that in the Finnish society there is a broad consensus on the need of continued food production in Finland. Besides food and raw material for the forest industry, Finnish countryside produces various kinds of services. The Minister voices high hopes regarding bioenergy production, which combines the produce of fields and forests.


KAIJALEENA RUNSTEN
PHOTO SEPPO SAMULI

As a cereal producer, Finland’s Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Juha Korkeaoja, knows of own experience that for the agricultural producers, the Finnish summer is a race against time. Pictured above, a barley field in southwestern Finland at the end of May.