Cloudberry season kicks off in Finnish market with high-quality harvest expected

On Tuesday morning, a queue had already formed at the Ranua market as local entrepreneur Reijo Sääskilahti sold cloudberries to customers. “We started a week earlier than last year. I bought the first cloudberries for sale on Friday,” says Sääskilahti. However, the queues are still only sporadic. About 90 percent of the cloudberries are still unripe, according to Sääskilahti, who predicts that they will ripen in the coming days. “More berries will start coming in later this week. The most cloudberries will start coming in next week,” he says.

The cloudberry season usually lasts about two weeks, or even a month, if the weather is favorable and the temperature does not rise above 20 degrees Celsius. “If it’s hot, the cloudberry season is over in two weeks,” he says.

The issue of Thai pickers being stuck in bureaucracy does not affect Sääskilahti, as he buys the cloudberries for sale from other pickers, mostly locals, and also Ukrainians. “Ukrainian berry pickers will start coming to Ranua over the weekend,” he says.

Currently, a picker gets 10 euros per kilo of cloudberries from Sääskilahti. Customers, on the other hand, pay Sääskilahti 17 to 21 euros per kilo of cloudberries at the Ranua market, depending on the size of the container. Smaller batches of cloudberries are more expensive than larger batches.

This year, according to Sääskilahti, the cloudberry harvest looks reasonable and the quality is very good. “We have had three good cloudberry years behind us and I would classify this year as good too,” he says.

Lapland berry pickers have been active and cloudberries have been available for 15 to 20 euros per kilo from private individuals on social media. The first cloudberries came for sale last weekend in the Facebook group Lapland Berry Exchange.

The Natural Resources Institute Finland’s (Luke) Berry Observations website reports that the cloudberry situation in Sodankylä, Kolari, and Northern Lapland looks good, even abundant in Eastern Lapland. In Ranua and Tornio, the cloudberry situation is average according to recorded observations.

Sääskilahti says that the ripening time of cloudberries and other berries has advanced in Ranua and Lapland over the years, a phenomenon he attributes to climate change and global warming.

“Cloudberry picking has advanced by two weeks. In the 1960s and 1970s, the cloudberry season was mainly the first week of August. Now it is around mid-July,” he says.

He notes that for a good cloudberry harvest to be realized, pollinators, or insects, need to be present at the right time and place. “For a good harvest, many things need to fall into place. It’s important to have pollinators when the cloudberry blooms. If it’s cold and rainy then, it will be a crop failure. The cloudberry flower doesn’t wait for the pollinator for very long, then it withers.”

Ranua is known for its cloudberries because it has the most marshland compared to other Finnish municipalities, and cloudberries mainly grow in marshland.