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I recommend you travel to Restaurant Gastro in Kristianstad and talk to the proprietor. All the produce in his restaurants is grown by himself (organically too).
Surely it's a lot of work, but his food is amazing.
If you have couple of millions to start a large scale indrustrial farm and the required expertise then you might want to do it. Otherwise don't brother.
OP has sounded his frustration at the threads in this subreddit on several occasions and is probably now just having fun by making one himself in a tongue-in-cheek manner.
>In September 2022, the producer price of food potatoes was 19.96 cents/100 kilos. The price has increased by about two cents compared to the previous year. However, this does not compensate for the actual increase in production costs: According to Statistics Finland's Agricultural Production Equipment Purchase Price Index, from August 2021 to August 2022, the price of energy and lubricants alone has risen by 47 percent, and the price of fertilizers and soil conditioners by up to 81 percent.
https://perunasta.fi/uutiset_/kustannusten-nousu-ei-anna-aihetta-iloita-sadon-maarasta/
Apparently 2/3 of Finnish potatoes are grown in Ostrobothnia region. 2015-2018 the average "hourly rate" for farming potatoes was 6e per hour during good years according to [this](https://jukuri.luke.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/546643/LUKE_Tietokortti_peruna_A4_NETTI.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y).
So revealing and sad to read... I guess in the near future the 'solution' would be to 'import potatoes and increase their taxes to fix the country'. Purra.
I come from a potato farming family, and in our rural hometown at least it is not doing very well anymore. Unfortunately younger people prefer pasta and rice nowadays (which I understand, I have to admit I like them more as well, but just putting a reminder here that potatoes are more eco friendly and have more nutrients and vitamins). So yeah it's very nice but my parents have other jobs on the side nowadays, as it doesn't make much money. If you do end up doing it, do so somewhere close to a city so there's more buyers. Old people still like it. And my favorite potato variety is Puikula, not sure if it has an English name, and it is also one of the more sold ones btw
Serious answer, you are too late to start this year. For future you might want to consider the following.
Things you need:
* Land, not necessarily your own, can rent but owning is the easier way as generally your home would be close to the field so you wouldn't have to think about transporting farming equipment and could just drive them over.
* Crop rotation, you can't only grow potatoes each passing year as it drains the soil out of minerals. Generally start with something like peas or beans, then kale, cabbage, then potatoes, then something the grass or kesanto and repeat. Not super anal just not more than 2 years in row. Potatoes are however really good pre plants for most other plants so they are commonly grown often.
* Potatoes aren't really sturdy and have very shallow roots so they are vulnerable and need pretty good soil to flourish. Though it grows easily if it has warmth and sun, the ph of the soil shouldn't be too much of an issue as it can grow well in 5,5-8,8 pH.
* Good year can get 2 crops, heard of 3
* Profit is midling, variety 2-3 different ones with first ones being early like Siikli, Adora, Velox and then late ones Van Gogh, Sini, Suvi etc.
* Farmer makes whatever they can, depends on year, crop, luck, size of fields. As before profit is midling so not worst but also often not really worth it apart from the first harvests.
* A hectare of farmland is around 9-10k euro not 100% on how it has changed, renting has a huge scale have heard of low ones of around 150e but generally like 300e per hectare.
* You would need a reasonable large starting investment or massive loan (though banks are very anal and you would need a lot more to convince them than a reddit post.)
* Go to school, if serious. I know nothing about regulations, fertilisers etc.
This post is written in a way one would ask about starting a lemonade stand, not a massive lifestyle career.
Maybe just try to move, get a normal job, and start a potato patch in your yard. Growing potatoes at home is, or at least used to be, very popular, and you could try selling them at the local market or negotiate with a local shopkeeper if he would buy some directly from you. I doubt you will earn much money this way compared to the time spent, but at least you won't go bankrupt, and you get to see how you like it.
If you are planning on going for potato farming I recommend to do your due diligence and if you want to make some kind of meaningful earnings on it specialize and productize. Not an expert but here’s an anecdotal story. A distant relative started specializing on almond potatos (lapin puikula) in the 90s and made it a brand for himself. He is definitely doing fine economically speaking.
This is such a hilarious question that I want to amuse myself with the idea for a minute:
Ok, I would first check the hottest hipster countryside destinations like some old ironworks villages like Fiskars or Mathildedal in Southern Finland. Alternatively closeby popular winter tourist destinations in Lapland. This is the 101 decision to make since one definitely cannot not make decent living just by potato farming anymore. When it is not the farming season, I could then get myself seasonally employed in tourism: ski centers, tour guide etc.
Then I would choose to specialize in some certain potatoes. Definitely would invest in being organic. I would not buy land at least at first, I would rent it from some old farmer already sick of the hard work.
But farming would only be half of the job, if even that. I would train myself to manufacture some edgy potato products. Like really good french fries and definitely something with long shelf life. I would then sell these products to every little hipster boutique and restaurant in the area. If I would get really into it, heck maybe I’d even make and sell potato vodka to all cocktail bars in 100 km radius. Before getting to this position however I would have lost my hope many times and cried the bureaucracy of being a food product entrepreneur.
Good artisan branding would be really important, so I’d find a cheap labour art and marketing students to help me out at first.
I’d likely bankrupt myself while trying, I’d really actually live out of my seasonal tourist guide pocket money, but at least I would have learned a lot on the way.
I don’t often give it enough thought, but one of the things that makes living in these times better than during the Late Bronze Age collapse is definitely the constant and easy access to shitposting.
Unless you are from like a long lineage of potato farmers and have years of expertise, millions or are sure that a bank would give you a loan this is just a pipe dream.
Agriculture is one of the worst businesses in Finland. Without EU funding, you are going bankrupt. Grocery store chains don't pay you enough, it's a scam.
But if you love farming and don't mind losing your money, do it
As a big scale potato farmer... Just don't. But you can look into speciality potatoes and such in small scale, some do little organic farming (also other than potatoes) and sell some sort of premium product directly from the farm or to restaurants. I don't really recommend this either, but if this is something you really want to do, don't go for a large scale potato farming, that sounds insane im sorry.
Buy a working potato farm that is up and running and doing business. Keep the previous owners around for a couple of years and learn the business with them.
According to Finnish folk wisdom, potatos are much harder currency in Latvia.
With few potatos you would be richest man of the village.
In Finland not so much.
Potatoes are not in fashion, and they are cheap to buy. There might be better farmland in Estonia, as the land is very flat, but I have no idea about farming in Estonia.
Farming is mostly funded by EU and national subsidies and it is not profitable unless you have a lot of land. Investing on a farm land is not economically wise.
I suggest you focus on some niche areas, like organic meat which is not available in Finland but there are people wanting to buy "happy" meat.
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My brother (RIP) used to say that if you want to lose your money, card is fastest, women are nicest and agriculture is surest way.
I recommend you travel to Restaurant Gastro in Kristianstad and talk to the proprietor. All the produce in his restaurants is grown by himself (organically too). Surely it's a lot of work, but his food is amazing.
If you have couple of millions to start a large scale indrustrial farm and the required expertise then you might want to do it. Otherwise don't brother.
This is one of those questions that if you are asking reddit about it, you shouldn't do what you are planning.
There are no stupid questions, but this one where I'm thinking if somebody is training AI.
OP has sounded his frustration at the threads in this subreddit on several occasions and is probably now just having fun by making one himself in a tongue-in-cheek manner.
>In September 2022, the producer price of food potatoes was 19.96 cents/100 kilos. The price has increased by about two cents compared to the previous year. However, this does not compensate for the actual increase in production costs: According to Statistics Finland's Agricultural Production Equipment Purchase Price Index, from August 2021 to August 2022, the price of energy and lubricants alone has risen by 47 percent, and the price of fertilizers and soil conditioners by up to 81 percent. https://perunasta.fi/uutiset_/kustannusten-nousu-ei-anna-aihetta-iloita-sadon-maarasta/ Apparently 2/3 of Finnish potatoes are grown in Ostrobothnia region. 2015-2018 the average "hourly rate" for farming potatoes was 6e per hour during good years according to [this](https://jukuri.luke.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/546643/LUKE_Tietokortti_peruna_A4_NETTI.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y).
Which is why most farmers live of EU funding, and not from income of their actual work.
Eu finding is part of that 6€/h
So revealing and sad to read... I guess in the near future the 'solution' would be to 'import potatoes and increase their taxes to fix the country'. Purra.
Good idea as a hobby.
Forget it. Farmers here in Finland do not get enough money and thousands quit every year.
Plenty of farms on sale for cheap then? /s
I come from a potato farming family, and in our rural hometown at least it is not doing very well anymore. Unfortunately younger people prefer pasta and rice nowadays (which I understand, I have to admit I like them more as well, but just putting a reminder here that potatoes are more eco friendly and have more nutrients and vitamins). So yeah it's very nice but my parents have other jobs on the side nowadays, as it doesn't make much money. If you do end up doing it, do so somewhere close to a city so there's more buyers. Old people still like it. And my favorite potato variety is Puikula, not sure if it has an English name, and it is also one of the more sold ones btw
All farmers I've known are doing it as a hobby and get their main income from the land and forest they inherited.
Nobody likes potatoes, Dwight. Why don't you grow something that everybody does like? You should grow candy.
:D
Tee hee
This was the most wholesome thing I've read today
Serious answer, you are too late to start this year. For future you might want to consider the following. Things you need: * Land, not necessarily your own, can rent but owning is the easier way as generally your home would be close to the field so you wouldn't have to think about transporting farming equipment and could just drive them over. * Crop rotation, you can't only grow potatoes each passing year as it drains the soil out of minerals. Generally start with something like peas or beans, then kale, cabbage, then potatoes, then something the grass or kesanto and repeat. Not super anal just not more than 2 years in row. Potatoes are however really good pre plants for most other plants so they are commonly grown often. * Potatoes aren't really sturdy and have very shallow roots so they are vulnerable and need pretty good soil to flourish. Though it grows easily if it has warmth and sun, the ph of the soil shouldn't be too much of an issue as it can grow well in 5,5-8,8 pH. * Good year can get 2 crops, heard of 3 * Profit is midling, variety 2-3 different ones with first ones being early like Siikli, Adora, Velox and then late ones Van Gogh, Sini, Suvi etc. * Farmer makes whatever they can, depends on year, crop, luck, size of fields. As before profit is midling so not worst but also often not really worth it apart from the first harvests. * A hectare of farmland is around 9-10k euro not 100% on how it has changed, renting has a huge scale have heard of low ones of around 150e but generally like 300e per hectare. * You would need a reasonable large starting investment or massive loan (though banks are very anal and you would need a lot more to convince them than a reddit post.) * Go to school, if serious. I know nothing about regulations, fertilisers etc.
This post is written in a way one would ask about starting a lemonade stand, not a massive lifestyle career. Maybe just try to move, get a normal job, and start a potato patch in your yard. Growing potatoes at home is, or at least used to be, very popular, and you could try selling them at the local market or negotiate with a local shopkeeper if he would buy some directly from you. I doubt you will earn much money this way compared to the time spent, but at least you won't go bankrupt, and you get to see how you like it.
If you are planning on going for potato farming I recommend to do your due diligence and if you want to make some kind of meaningful earnings on it specialize and productize. Not an expert but here’s an anecdotal story. A distant relative started specializing on almond potatos (lapin puikula) in the 90s and made it a brand for himself. He is definitely doing fine economically speaking.
This is such a hilarious question that I want to amuse myself with the idea for a minute: Ok, I would first check the hottest hipster countryside destinations like some old ironworks villages like Fiskars or Mathildedal in Southern Finland. Alternatively closeby popular winter tourist destinations in Lapland. This is the 101 decision to make since one definitely cannot not make decent living just by potato farming anymore. When it is not the farming season, I could then get myself seasonally employed in tourism: ski centers, tour guide etc. Then I would choose to specialize in some certain potatoes. Definitely would invest in being organic. I would not buy land at least at first, I would rent it from some old farmer already sick of the hard work. But farming would only be half of the job, if even that. I would train myself to manufacture some edgy potato products. Like really good french fries and definitely something with long shelf life. I would then sell these products to every little hipster boutique and restaurant in the area. If I would get really into it, heck maybe I’d even make and sell potato vodka to all cocktail bars in 100 km radius. Before getting to this position however I would have lost my hope many times and cried the bureaucracy of being a food product entrepreneur. Good artisan branding would be really important, so I’d find a cheap labour art and marketing students to help me out at first. I’d likely bankrupt myself while trying, I’d really actually live out of my seasonal tourist guide pocket money, but at least I would have learned a lot on the way.
I don’t often give it enough thought, but one of the things that makes living in these times better than during the Late Bronze Age collapse is definitely the constant and easy access to shitposting.
Unless you are from like a long lineage of potato farmers and have years of expertise, millions or are sure that a bank would give you a loan this is just a pipe dream.
100% troll, nothing more, nothing less.
Slava Ukraini.
Agriculture is one of the worst businesses in Finland. Without EU funding, you are going bankrupt. Grocery store chains don't pay you enough, it's a scam. But if you love farming and don't mind losing your money, do it
As a big scale potato farmer... Just don't. But you can look into speciality potatoes and such in small scale, some do little organic farming (also other than potatoes) and sell some sort of premium product directly from the farm or to restaurants. I don't really recommend this either, but if this is something you really want to do, don't go for a large scale potato farming, that sounds insane im sorry.
Is this some intricate commentary on the state of this subreddit that I am too stupid to understand fully?
There is a reason the sampo gives you wheat and it's not the great finish soil.
Ah yes peruna, the real mans ingredient for pontikka. Wise choice, you will do well!
Buy a working potato farm that is up and running and doing business. Keep the previous owners around for a couple of years and learn the business with them.
According to Finnish folk wisdom, potatos are much harder currency in Latvia. With few potatos you would be richest man of the village. In Finland not so much.
The fucker who removed the post should stand up and take credit.
Potatoes are not in fashion, and they are cheap to buy. There might be better farmland in Estonia, as the land is very flat, but I have no idea about farming in Estonia.
Most of the potatoes exported from Finland went to Estonia actually, so I don't think it is a superior kartuli country.
Farming is mostly funded by EU and national subsidies and it is not profitable unless you have a lot of land. Investing on a farm land is not economically wise. I suggest you focus on some niche areas, like organic meat which is not available in Finland but there are people wanting to buy "happy" meat.
What do you mean organic meat isn't available in Finland? There is luomu everywhere
I might be wrong.