The visit was based in Helsinki and we visited growers in the South of the country. The purpose of the visits was to investigate the use of supplementary lighting on crops in Finland and to see if the same techniques could be used in UK production.

Day 1
The day was organised by Tomas Jacobsen, Daenfeldt. Pauli Lindström, HL-vihannes Oy was also with us.

We spent the morning with Erkki Kinanen, Senior Category Manager, INEX Partners OY. This is a major supply company providing all the requirements of the major retail outlets in the country this includes fresh fruit and vegetables but also includes all other items required for retailing. An annual report for 2001 was supplied and is available if required.

INEX has four depots in Finland and supplies almost 1300 stores. The Helsinki depot works from an 8 ha site and to give an idea of the scale of the operation - they use 400 fork lift trucks for order collection. Turnover in 2001 was €1.6B with 2,100 employees growth was in the order of 6 to 8% per year.

We saw some very innovative ideas for the sale of fresh herbs and also lettuce packs that were still growing - not new but these had three different types of coloured and curly lettuce inside. Packaging of tomatoes was also very good - and all cucumbers were shrink wrapped with the Finnish flag.

All product was sold by the kilo and did not appear to be size graded - apart from by eye. Many fruits being offered for sale would be considered too small, bent, miss-shaped for sale in the UK.

Grower - Naakan Puutarha, Anjalankoski.

Nursery was established in 1938 and has 7000 m2 of production with 4000 m2 cucumbers and 3000 m2 tomato

Varieties - Cumulus and trying Nina with plant density of 2.3 / m2

Lights - 160 - 200 W/m2 [this is electrical load and not light output]

Production - 120 - 130 kg/m2

Fruit thinning - aim at 2 in 1 out - but can still get 5 or more nodes where the fruit aborts - depending on vigour / light from outside etc.

Electricity costs - quite difficult to get a feel for the whole cost as growers are charged for transport and for use. Transport costs can be reduced by buying the transformer. This grower had spent €70,000 on the transformer and was paying as follows:-
Winter day [7am to 10 pm]

 €0.029 / kWh + transport of €0.029 / kWh [4p/kWh]
Winter night

 €0.026 / kWh + transport of €0.0208 / kWh [3.218p/kWh]
Summer €0.024 / kWh + transport of €0.0079 / kWh [2.19 p/kWh]

Assuming 18 hour day and the dark period at the end of the day period - 4 pm to 10 pm and lights in use for 66% of the remaining day period and then all night - this gives a cost of £0.1059 /m2 per 24 hr period [winter] - even taking account of the reduced fuel use this is a substantial amount to recover.

Grower - Viherpeukalot [Greenfingers] Jari Heinonen [Manager]

The nursery has 1.1 ha of production with 6000 m2 cucumbers and the remainder was roses - this remaining 5000 m2 was to be converted to cucumbers by the summer.

Varieties - Indira, Ceres and Amazing

Lights - 185 W/m2

Production 2 - 3 kg/m2 per week with total of 100 kg with assumption that 120 kg was possible.

This nursery had a thrip problem that was not being helped by the fact that they were re-planting small sections at a time to maintain output. This was allowing the thrip to transfer from one crop to the next. There was also not enough use of predator to cope!

Electricity costs - this nursery had greatly reduced its transport costs by installing a transformer at a cost of €500,000. This reduced electricity to €0.014 /kWh.

Supermarket visit - Helsinki area

Spanish cucumbers were being offered at €1.80 / kg and they were a very poor sample for the equivalent of 49.5p per 400 g stick. But the local product was being offered at €3.95 / kg - £1.09 per 400 g stick!

When customers were asked why they were buying the local product they talked about the lack of pesticide use and the fact that Finnish cucumbers were virtually organic and it was worth the difference.

Last year the price for cucumbers fell to an all time low in the summer of €0.50 / kg [£2.06 per 6 kg box].

The output of cucumbers in Finland is from just over 70 ha [approx 77,000 tonnes]. Imports last year were 9,300 tonnes. With a population of 5 million that is 17.26 kg of cucumber per person!


Day 2

The second day was organised by Leif Anderson of Rijk Zwaan and Tom Murmann [local adviser] Johan Höysti - manager for Schetelig [local supply company] was also with us.

Grower - Pirinen Kauppapuutarha Oy, Hyvinkää - Risto Pirinen

This grower had a unique growing system that consisted of a propagation area of 1200 m2 where 2000 plants were sown every week to replace the existing crop. Plants were grown 4 to a tray and grown for 4 1/2 weeks in winter and 4 weeks in summer. The plants were supported by 50cm "canes" and before bringing into the growing house the bottom 3 leaves were removed and they were cleaned out to the 7th node. In propagation the crop was irrigated by ebb & flood to a depth of 2.5 cm then 24 hours before transfer this was increased to 12 cm to wet the peat growing media before transfer to drip irrigation.

The production area was 7200 m2 - with cutting starting 14 days after planting. The crop is stopped 3 weeks before it is pulled out.

Varieties - Aramond, Grendal & Amazing with plant density of 2.4 /m2

Lights - 180 W/m2 in production area and 250 W/m2 in prop. Lit period is 18 hours with the lighting reducing to 50 above 120 W/m2 and off at 250 W/m2 [with 30 minute wait before coming back on]. This grower was also trying lights in the crop - 250 W vertical lamps between the rows - looked to be too concentrated near the lamps.

Electricity costs - €0.0714 / kWh inclusive and 50% of this for 10pm to 7am.

Production - 30 cucumbers / m2 per plant over 10 week production period [then replaced] -135 kg/m2


Grower - Varpio Puutarha Oy, Virkkala - Timo Varpio

Production area of 18,000 m2 - half lit half not. The nursery was empty for 2 weeks in early November.

Varieties - Aviance - using similar to Codacide [rape seed oil] at 1% for mildew control - it did not appear to be working too well. Nova [DR] was also being tried. Plant density was 2.5 /m2 with 3 - 4 crops per year.

Lights - 230 W/m2 loading with all lights out at 300 W/m2 outside. Costs - €50 per luminaire and €11 - 12 per replacement bulb. Johan Höysti said that they use GE bulbs rather than Philips - they claim they are better but could be price.

Electricity costs - €0.07 / kWh inclusive and 70% of this for summer

Production - 120 kg/m2 with average fruit weight 350 - 400 g. Aimed at average 24 hr temperature of 22.5 to 23 C.

Working - 1 man to cope with 700m2 high wire and 1 per 1500 m2 cordon crop.

CO2 levels at 600 - 800 vpm.


Grower - Hortiherttua Oy, Karjalohja - Toni Tanner and Jani Lindman growing sweet pepper on a new enterprise.

Production area of 3500 m2 peppers - last year this was 3000 m2 cucumbers - but they decided to change to peppers as the cucumber crop was being over done. This was a double skinned plastic house and the plastic was not treated with anti-condensate and drips from the plastic were damaging the crop.

Lights - 180 - 200 W/m2

These two appeared to be struggling with problems and also with marketing - they were the only growers of peppers in the area so they wee having difficulty marketing and also with problem solving.


Grower - Hagelberg, Hanelsträdgård - Jan Hagelberg, Kylmälä

Production area of 5000 m2 cucumbers and 5000 m2 tomatoes.

Varieties - Ladner but moving over to Aviance all cucumbers at 2 /m2. Tomato - Espero at 2.5 /m2 with 1 shoot in 4 taken.

Lights - 200 W/m2 with night from 6pm to 10pm [expensive electricity] and going off at 330 W/m2 outside.

Electricity costs - €0.0378 / kWh inclusive - having spent €170,000 on a transformer.

Over 100 digital photographs were taken during the visit - mostly showing aspects of systems etc.

We are grateful to the growers that gave up their time for us and offered us their hospitality and knowledge. I would also like to thank the people mentioned above that accompanied us on the visits and for their hospitality making the experience all the more worthwhile.


I also have to mention the evenings - made more memorable by Elio!