The Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has issued for a study on the different economic impacts there might be to solutions to the seasonal berry pickers, which often arrives from Thailand., Cambodia and Myanmar.
There has been a lot of focus on the conditions for foreign berry pickers in Finland over the last 10 years. This resulted in Finland closing admission for Foreign workers from Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar for the 2024 harvest season. The time was meant to find a solution to the problem.
To read more about the initial issue click here.
Now a report has been released explaining the pros and cons of different solutions.
The report has been made by Pellervo Economic Research and the University of Vaasa. They only really see two solutions to the issues with the foreign berry pickers. The workers must either be self employed or have a contract, when they arrive. However, the option of the foreign workers being self-employed doesn’t seem all that realistic:
“For pickers who do not know Finnish and come from very different cultural environments working as self-employed persons would be cumbersome and inefficient in terms of costs. In practice, pickers would not be able to fulfill their statutory obligations. The pickers would still be dependent on the wild berry companies, because they would have to conclude contracts with the to sell the berries,” says Henna Busk, Senior Economist at Pellervo Economic Research.
The study also points out that this solution wouldn’t necessarily ensure higher pay in general for workers. It also wouldn’t effect the indebtedness due to travel expenses in the country of origin.
The solution with a contract seems to be the optimal one. But, it is also the solution, which would make it a bit more expensive for the companies to hire foreign workers. However the study underline that this change in economy shouldn’t have any significant impact on the government’s general finances.
A key point to the report is that the workers shouldn’t be allowed to arrive on a tourist visa. Also if the contractual solution is chosen, then this would mean that the picking of wild produce would be included in the seasonal workers act.
In general the report calls for political involvement on the subject, as well as it recommends bring in people from the industry to find the solution.
The changes are intended to take effect for the 2025 harvest season.
