Finland
Country
Finland
Continent
Northern Europe
Market Performance
The Natural & Organic Market in Finland was reportedly worth E227M in 2014. Growth in 2014 was flat (0%) in-line with stagnation of Finnish economy.
Growth of 6.7% is reported for 2015. Per-capita spend was 100E in the same year.
Finland struggles to obtain reliable numeric data. High taxes (sugar and VAT) and logistics costs – due to geography - can be significant.
Consumer Preferences & Channels
23% of Finns bought organic products in 2014, mainly 30-40 year old urban females. The majority of daily groceries are from chain retail stores. Independent deli stores or farmer’s markets or speciality stores are still rare, but the trend of shopping in shops with less than 100m2 is very slowly growing (+ 3% in February 2015). A 2016 study by University of Vaasa found that consumers who buy organic are associated with unselfishness, along with credibility and sincerity, but also higher social status.
Hypermarkets and medium supermarkets have started to lose share. Covnience, wildfoods/herbs are of greatest interest. S-Group/SOK Chains: Prisma, Sokos, Emotion, Kodin Terra, Sale, S-Market, Alepa, ABC have the largest general grocery share (45,7%), with K-Group/Kesko (Chains: K-Citymarket, Anttila, Kodin1, K-Supermarket) having the 2nd largest share (-34%) with 940 stores.
Organic milk continues to be the single most sold organic product, with a market share of 15% of the total organic market.
Legislative Considerations
Under the control of EU regulation. Any food product sold as 'organic' falls under the EU regulations 834/2007 and 889/2008.
This means that the product must have been produced to these regulations and inspected and certified by a registered EU certification body.
Currently non-foods (e.g. textiles and health & beauty products) are not covered by the scope of this regulation.
Distributors
Transmeri - www.transmeri.fi/en
Macrobios - www.makrobios.fi/
Sources & Links to Further Info
UKTI – Helsinki: https://www.gov.uk/government/world/organisations/uk-trade-investment-finland