A large number of foreign berry-pickers again arrived in Savukoski in the north of Finland to pick wild berries in order to earn extra money. Thai berry-picker Chuchart Lotaisong smiles contentedly amid his 15 boxes of blueberries at a weighing station at an old school in Savukoski on Monday. His first day in the forest proved successful, and he managed to pick a total of 173 kilos of blueberries, earning more than EUR 200 in a single day.

Part of the pickers arrived in Savukoski’s Kuosku village already more than a week ago. While waiting for the local blueberries to ripen, they picked cloudberries. However, the cloudberry crop is poor this season, and their yields were small.
"Nevertheless, I am pleased. I managed to pick five kilos of cloudberries and got as much as ten euros a kilo for them", says Khamphol Khatum. This is his second summer in Savukoski’s forests. This season wild blueberries fetch about EUR 1.20 per kilo.

The majority of the Thais have been invited to Finland by Riitan Herkku, a food processing company in Mustasaari. Riitan Herkku does not buy cloudberries, but the pickers have been able to sell their berries to other buyers. Another large food processing company buying berries from foreign pickers is Lapin Liha, who started systematic berry-picking already last week. This year the company has invited more than 600 foreign berry-pickers to Lapland, and the last group is to arrive in Finland today.

"We have tried to schedule the arrival of berry-pickers so that they can get to the forest right away", reports Managing Director Jukka Kristo from Lapin Liha.
Kristo notes further that the pickers who arrived at the end of July have found cloudberries and managed to earn a reasonable amount of money already.