Strawberry fields forever? Finland's favourite Midsummer fruit at risk over climate change

Nothing signals the start of summer in Finland quite like the arrival of home-grown strawberries on supermarket shelves, on market stalls and on dinner tables across the country.

Most of the strawberries grown in Finland are cultivated in open fields, although some farms also make use of plastic grow tunnels to speed up the harvesting - which is still all done by hand - by between a few days and up to two weeks.

But getting the perfect berry from the fields to your table in time for Midsummer is a tricky process with lots of factors coming into play: like how much snow there has been in the winter; how late the frosts came; if it’s been too hot; too cold; too much or too little rain. And the climate crisis, with its increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, makes production even more difficult.

“Spring was quite slow this year but now when the warm weather arrived it really accelerated the strawberry growth,” explains Peter Boije af Gennäs, who runs the Illby Gård farm near Porvoo.

“Winter has a big impact on the blooming and whether plants survive or grow in the spring,” he adds.

Strawberry farm development

Illby Gård started its strawberry farm back in 1995 at first they were selling the berries locally to restaurants, market stalls and small businesses - with only a few people coming to pick their own direct from the fields.

Fifteen years ago the business “exploded”, Boije af Gennäs tells Finland Insider, and they had up to 50 workers in the fields picking the strawberries at that time.

But now the business is mostly pick-your-own, with families making a day of it in the countryside.

“People want to know where the berries are from, where they are grown, it is a summer family day out and at the end, you get your strawberries in the fridge at home,” he says.

The changing weather patterns make it more difficult to have the strawberry harvest ready on time, although at Illby Gård they grow a variety which is ready usually only after Midsummer, and tends to be sweeter than earlier crops.

“It’s difficult nowadays to be a farmer, you don't have a button to push to have warm weather. Everyone has an app to control their lives but we don’t have an app to control the crops and the weather. You just have to take what comes,” Peter Boije af Gennäs explains.

Can climate change help, or hurt? 

In some ways, climate change could bring new opportunities to Finnish farmers, says Ari Rajala, a Principal Scientist at the Finnish Natural Resources Institute Luke.

“In the past decade there have been quite many years there hasn’t been enough precipitation in the early growing season, from mid-May to Midsummer, and these drought spells are occurring more often than in the past,” he tells Finland Insider.

“But let’s say the duration of our growing season is longer, and temperatures are warmer, we could grow different species of crops so it increases our production potential,” Rajala says.

On one hand a longer growing season brings the potential for more food to be grown in the fields. But the crucial lack of rainfall and more frequent drought conditions at a crucial time in the strawberry growing cycle could put Finland’s favourite Midsummer berry at risk in years to come.