Helsinki / FI. (fg) The availability challenges of grain, packaging materials and energy and the resulting price pressures have increased dramatically following the war in Ukraine. Despite the significant increase in the raw material prices, Finland’s Fazer Group continues to honour its commitment to use only domestic grain in its consumer products. Using domestic grain is also a way to support sustainable farming.
Domestic food is critically important in the sense of the security of supply, and its importance is increasing in the destabilised geopolitical situation. Finland’s self-sufficiency is among the highest in the world, at 80 percent – see: Tietohaarukka 2021 – Tilastotietoa ruokaketjusta … or, if Finnish is not your preferred language, see: Tietohaarukka 2021 – Forkful of Facts, that is available in Ruokatieto’s archive.
«It is crucial that the entire food production chain remains viable. To ensure the security of supply, the entire value chain must be able to operate profitably. To survive the crisis in the food industry, tight cooperation and efforts are required from all parties,» says Lara Saulo, Head of Fazer Bakery Business Area.
«The rise in costs caused by the crisis will unfortunately affect everyone, from producers and the industry through to trade and the consumers. We can all help securing the viability of the food production chain by choosing domestic products,» Saulo adds.
Despite the significant increase in prices, Fazer will continue to use only Finnish grain in its consumer products.
«Due to the ongoing crisis, we have renegotiated the existing producer agreements in terms of pricing. The prices we’re paying the producers are considerably higher: we’re now paying twice what we were paying for wheat and oat in the previous season,» says Jarkko Arrajoki, Managing Director for Fazer Mills Finland.
For Fazer, using Finnish grain is also a way of caring for the environment. Fazer has worked consistently towards sustainable farming for nearly ten years since the company signed its first Baltic Sea Commitment.
«We call this work Fazer’s Grain Vision. This vision is our tool for ensuring that the grain we use is produced sustainably. Our key goals are to help prevent the eutrophication of water bodies, protect biodiversity, reduce the use of plant protection chemicals, and bind carbon to the soil. Our ambition is to establish the principles of sustainable farming as defined in Fazer’s Grain Vision as the minimum standard in all Finnish production,» Arrajoki says.
Fazer is developing its Grain Vision through active cooperation with Finnish farmers. The vision is for all the grain used in Fazer’s Finnish and Swedish consumer products to comply with the principles of sustainable development by 2025.
