Fruits of Freedom: Ukrainians Replace Thais as Finland's Berry-Pickers

In Finland, summer means an abundance of berries. In recent decades, the Nordic country has relied mostly on foreign labor to reap this harvest. Lately, however, Finland's berry-picking workforce has undergone a drastic change, with Ukrainian laborers replacing Thais, which were known to have dominated the business before.

Finland's state program to entice refugees to pick berries is not going as successfully as planned, and seasonal foreign workers have continued to rule the market. Thai workers have been arriving in Finland to gather fruit since 2005 and have played a large role in this trade. In recent years, though, Ukrainians have become increasingly competitive in this business.

However, there are major differences between Ukrainians' and Thais' work routines. While Ukrainians prefer to work on farms, Thais fancy collecting wild berries. Another contrast involves wages, as Ukrainians in the strawberry fields make double the wages of Thais in the forest, Finnish national broadcaster Yle reported.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this year has seen a sharp drop in the number of Thais willing to take a long trip to Northern Europe to work in challenging conditions for uncertain rewards. Additionally, the Thai government specifically issued a warning to potential pickers that they might actually get swindled in Finland, in addition to experiencing poor working conditions and chilly summer weather, the Finnish daily Savon Sanomat reported.

Några timmar i blåbärsskogen med barnen och vänner var riktigt fint 🌲#blåbär #sommar #ljuvligating pic.twitter.com/E3b3WW8xmg

— Magdalena Anderås (@magdalenanderas) July 26, 2017

​According to Olli Sorainen, a senior official at the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, this was the first time that potential berry pickers have been warned by Thai officials.

"There is some grain of truth in some of the claims, but I believe they were expressed in an unnecessarily colorful manner," Olli Sorainen told Savon Sanomat.

According to an estimate by Yle, Thai pickers coming to Finland for two-three months in the summer work for around 5-7 euros an hour, depending on their harvest; for comparison's sake, cleaners earn around €10 per hour. Berry-picking generally involves 12-15 hour work days and Thais spend roughly €1,000 during their stay, which means that the most successful pickers may earn around €5,000 over 70 days, while the unlucky ones could actually lose money.

The pickers' status as entrepreneurs, however, saves the berry firms a lot of money, as the cost of social insurance and pension payments would make many firms unviable, Arctic International CEO Janne Naapanki argued. If guaranteed an hourly wage, pickers might get lazy, spending time in the forests rather than picking berries, he contested.

Interior Ministry official Harri Sivula said that nothing is being done to improve the lot of forest-based pickers.

"Thais come here voluntarily," Harri Sivula told Yle. "There's no political pressure to resolve the issue. This is not a big problem in society," he added.

On strawberry farms, the situation is completely different, as pickers, mainly from Ukraine, enjoy contracts and a wage of around €11 an hour. Additionally, working time is limited to 40 hours per week, and any overtime is paid.

The influx of Ukrainians may be considered as a token of the country's ailing economy. Following the 2014 Maidan coup, Ukraine has amassed more IMF debt than Greece and is struggling to reduce this financial burden by implementing hyper-austerity, which involves drastic cuts in public spending. At present, the unemployment rate in the country hovers at around 10 percent amid a struggling economy and galloping inflation.