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Finland: unique climate and welfare
Even though pork is the most popular meat with consumers in Finland, the country’s pig farmers face their fair share of challenges producing it. The country is substantially different from many other countries, leading to a higher cost price.
F
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10 BY CHRIS MCCULLOUGH, CORRESPONDENT
inland is a unique country in Europe when it comes to pig production. Quite a few things make it stand out from the rest of Europe – but as it so often goes, being different also comes at a cost.
First of all, as the country is located in the north of Europe, winters usually last a long time, and sub-zero temperatures, snow and ice are common, leading to higher heating costs. Additional costs also come from high welfare, health and environmental demands. • Finland has a zero-tolerance policy towards Salmonella and must eradicate it, if it appears;
• Finland banned the practice of tail docking in 2002. Good feeding and supplying bedding regularly can increase welfare standards on pig farms and reduce tail-biting.
• Soy-free feeding is a theme, with the production chain in Finland having achieved a 32% reduction in carbon emis- sions. Atria, for instance, does not use soy in family farms for finishing pigs and aims to get rid of soy completely for small piglets.
• Reduction of antibiotic usage and adopting free-range farrowing practices are also hot topics in Finland.
Labour costs are relatively high Finnish pig farmers can secure a relatively stable profit mar- gin for their produce, if they can first work out what their
▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 36, No. 2, 2020
Pig welfare is considered important in Finland. Providing straw can help prevent tail biting.
average costs are. That means knowing more about one other key factor affecting overall production costs: the availability and the cost of labour. Finland enjoys a relativity high stand- ard of living which means workers are paid well; those in the agricultural labour sector are no different. Just recently, the Finnish government floated the idea of introducing a four- day working week and six-hour days, which undoubtedly will cause huge concern among the farming industry as it means higher worker salaries for less work.
Sows and pig farms Time to zoom in a little further: Finland is home to an esti- mated 80,000 sows, and there are around 900 pig farms oper- ating in the country. As Table 1 shows, the number of pig farms has been coming down by just over 11% in 2019. It is a pattern well-known by Taru Antikainen, the chairwoman of the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Own- ers (MTK) Pig Network. She says, “The percentage has been 7-12% since Finland jointed the EU in 1995. The trend seems to be continuing for next year as well. However, the farms are
Table 1 – Pig farms and sow numbers in Finland, 2018-2019.
Farms Sows
81,033
2018 2019 % 1,016 902 -11.1% 80,681 -0.4%
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