Berries, fruits yield high, not vegetables

The last growing season of berries and fruits was favourable but more challenging for the outdoor cultivation of vegetables, said the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) in a press release.

Outdoor production totalled 24 million kilos of berries and fruits, and 167 million kilos of vegetables in 2017.

The production of greenhouse vegetables in the year totalled 87 million kilos. In addition, more than 100 million pots of potted vegetables were produced.

A total of 3,729 companies were engaged last year in horticultural production on 19,300 hectares of outdoor land and 389 hectares of greenhouses. Of the companies, 2,984 were engaged in outdoor production and 1,062 in greenhouse production.

Outdoor production of berries was high in 2017, totalling as much as 17 million kilos. The harvest of strawberries, the most important outdoor berry, stood at 13.8 million kilos posting a rise of nearly two million kilos year on year.

One-fourth of all strawberries were cultivated in Northern Savonia. The raspberry harvest remained at one million kilo, being less than that in the year before.

“The long-term development of the cultivation of apples has produced good results, and shops have had Finnish apples longer in stock. Last year’s apple harvest was an all-time high at 6.8 million kilos. Of this harvest, a majority of five million kilos comes from the Åland Islands,” said Luke Senior Statistician Anna-Kaisa Jaakkonen.

Last year, outdoor vegetable production declined to 167 million kilos from that in 2016. The vegetable production was at the same level as in 2015.

Of this production, the harvest of carrots totalled 62 million kilos and that of onion was 26 million kilos. Even though the cultivation area of carrots was larger than in 2016, the total harvest of carrots was 10 million kilos lower than that in the previous year.

Of the outdoor vegetable production area, 48 per cent was located in the areas of the ELY Centres of Southwestern Finland and Satakunta, also accounting for more than half of the total production. These areas also account for most of contractual outdoor vegetable production in Finland, being located close to the food processing industry.

Greenhouse vegetable production in last year totalled 87 million kilos, of which greenhouse cucumbers accounted for 43 million kilos and tomatoes 39 million kilos. Greenhouse production is becoming highly centralised, as close to 70 per cent of the production of both tomatoes and cucumbers come from the area of the ELY Centre of Ostrobothnia, particularly from the Närpiö region.

More than 100 million pots of potted vegetables were sold, of which lettuce made up 72 million pots. The total production of potted vegetables increased slightly from that in the previous year, while posting a decrease from that in 2015.