The world demand for Finnish bilberries is greater than the amount that can be picked. Because of the great international interest Arctic Flavours, an association for non-wood products in Finland, promoting Finnish forest berries, mushrooms and herbs, challenged Finns for a second time to nationwide voluntary bilberry-picking in the summer.

The aim of the campaign is to encourage people on summer holiday and berry-pickers to collect a few pails of berries in order to sell them.

"If ten per cent of the more than two million Finnish households were to take part in the campaigns, it would collect almost half a million pails of bilberries. This mass effort, however, would meet the needs of just one Chinese customer, and leave the other customers relying on professional pickers," says Simo Moisio, the managing director of Artic Flavours, making his calculation at the beginning of April.

Because of the good demand for forest berries, commercial picking reached a new record in 2005: 12 million kilos. More than four million kilos of bilberries, with a value of 8.6 million euros, were exported from Finland.

Although the sparse population and lack of pickers make it difficult for exporting companies to obtain berries, the increasing number of pickers from abroad has made it possible to increase the commercial harvest. For example, about 450 Thai pickers arrived in Finland this summer.

In Finland there are about 3,000 professional pickers who every summer gather hundreds of kilos for commercial purposes and some 30,000 non-professional pickers who gather small amounts that are later sold.

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Research has shown that bilberries are healthy nourishment. It includes plenty of protective nutritive substances such as vitamins, minerals, micronutrients and flavonoids.