Bilateral cooperation

In bilateral cooperation, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry aims to maintain long-term relations with the key countries in the fields of agriculture and forestry. Contacts with partner countries are based on current needs and resources. Finland is constantly engaged in collaboration with the other Nordic countries and EU Member States at many different levels. Contacts with Russia are based on more traditional forms of cooperation. Long-term cooperation with China has already produced results by opening up new opportunities to export Finnish expertise and products.

Agri-food cooperation with China

The Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture have deepened their cooperation since 2005 when the ministries signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The Memorandum was updated in September 2012. It covers nine different fields of cooperation: research, quality and safety of foodstuffs, biomass-based energy, environmentally friendly agriculture, livestock farming, animal health, aquaculture, cultivation of oats and agricultural machinery.

A public servant working group operating at the Director-General level has been set up to implement the Memorandum of Understanding. Cooperation will also be facilitated by creating a China-Finland Platform for Agricultural Development and Innovation (CF-PADI), which will gradually cover all fields included in the Memorandum.

The main objective of the CF-PADI is to develop commercial cooperation by marketing the safe and controlled Finnish “farm-to-fork” food chain in which advanced and innovative technology and know-how are used to produce high-quality, healthy and clean foodstuffs in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner.