Wild berry picking offers tax-free earnings in Finland

Finland’s wild berry season is underway, and foragers can earn tax-free income by selling unprocessed berries, according to a report by Finnish broadcaster Yle.

Under Finland’s everyman’s rights, anyone in the country for the summer may freely pick wild berries. Income from selling self-harvested berries remains tax-exempt as long as the berries are not processed—such as sweetened or frozen.

Current market prices vary. Wild blueberries sell for about €50 per 10-litre container in social media berry exchange groups, while lingonberries and cloudberries fetch lower but rising prices. A kilo of cloudberries, for example, was priced at €12.50 this week by a vendor in Ranua.

Earlier this year, Finland’s Competition and Consumer Authority exposed a price-fixing cartel among berry buyers, which suppressed purchase prices for wild berries between 2013 and 2023. Thai pickers, for instance, received as little as €1.10–€1.30 per litre of blueberries under the scheme.

Yle provides a calculator for estimating potential earnings based on current prices sourced from the Finnish Food Authority and social media berry markets.