Foreign students pick Finnish blueberries after finding no other work

International students in Finland are turning to blueberry picking for summer income because they have been unable to find other jobs, Yle reports. At a camp deep in the forests of Kuhmo in the Kainuu region, more than 70 pickers are working, most of them Nepalese and Indian students. None is from Thailand, and none is employed by a berry company.

Pratikshya Rimal, who studies international business in Joensuu, would have preferred a job in her field. Instead, she is picking blueberries in Kuhmo.

“I am here because I did not get any other work. I had no other options,” Rimal says.

After 10 days, she had earned 1,500 euros from picking berries. “I am living through the summer on these blueberries and the income from the berries. I have made good money,” she says.

Rimal, from Nepal, is one of the berry pickers working for Gene Works Oy, a company based in Kouvola. The company normally operates in property maintenance and entered the berry business this summer, partly by chance.

“There has been so much news coverage, and the old companies have run into problems. We saw a gap in the market and wanted to move into it,” says Oleksi Rinne, the company’s chief operating officer.

Gene Works initially planned to start on a small scale. It has ultimately had more than 500 pickers at berry camps in different parts of Finland. By late August, the company had already paid for more than 300,000 kilograms of berries.

Rinne says he was surprised by how large a player the company had become in the berry industry in just one summer.

Pickers pay 12 euros a day

In the past, berry companies brought pickers to Finland and handled the visa process. The arrangement is different now.

Gene Works does not bring anyone to Finland or arrange travel or visas. It offers places at berry camps only to people who are already in Finland for another reason.

Pickers pay the company 12 euros a day for accommodation and transport. Those interviewed consider the charge reasonable. Some stay at the camps for only a few days, while others remain for the entire summer.

Many people heard about the Kuhmo camp through their communities and social media.

“There are many Nepalese people in Finland. When one person says this is a good place, others follow,” says Sushil Acharya, who is from Nepal.

No Thai pickers at the camp

In the best years, nearly 4,000 Thai berry pickers have worked in Finnish forests. There are none in Kuhmo this year.

Foreign berry pickers recruited through companies must now be employed by those companies. However, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs rejected almost all seasonal work visa applications from Thai pickers for this season.

As a result, berries have been picked under the Berry Act, as they were before last year’s legislative change.

Under this arrangement, pickers are not employed by the berry company and do not receive wages. They sell the berries to the company instead.

Natural products can be collected either as a seasonal employee, in which case the company is the collector’s employer, or under the Berry Act, in which case the company organises the collection but is not the employer. People can also pick berries entirely independently under everyman’s rights, arranging the picking and sale themselves.

The Berry Act does not automatically mean that every foreign national can work without an employment relationship. A person’s right to stay and work in Finland is also determined by other legislation. If the activity meets the criteria of an employment relationship, it is assessed accordingly.

The situation is the same at most berry companies this summer. Niko Huru, an inspector with the occupational safety division of the Permits and Supervisory Agency, says the number of pickers working under the Berry Act has more than doubled from last year to about 1,000.

“So far, 10 inspections have been carried out at bases. At these camps, none of the pickers has been in an employment relationship,” Huru says.

The high price paid for blueberries has also attracted Finnish pickers to the camps. The unusually strong purchase price has encouraged more people in Finland to pick berries.

The prices cited are those paid by Gene Works Oy. Purchase prices vary between companies.

According to the occupational safety authorities, pickers’ position has improved compared with the past, although shortcomings in compliance with the Berry Act are still being found. At the same time, pickers are more aware of their rights than before.