Trade of main wild berries in Finland

The price trends and markets of the main wild berries, bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) and lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.), were analysed in this study, which covered both domestic use of berries, imports and exports . The periods considered were for bilberries from 1988 to 1997 and for ling onberries from 1979 to 1994. The results indicated that both exports and im ports have increased and domestic berries have lost their market share to i mports in domestic use. One possible explanation for this trend was found i n price development. Both export and import prices have decreased, but expo rt price has still been higher than the import price. Simultaneously the do mestic price has decreased the fastest. The formation of the price of lingonberries paid to the pickers in the orga nised domestic markets was studied with a regression model. The results ind icated that domestic price was negatively dependent on the amounts of lingo nberries demanded in the domestic markets and positively dependent on the e xport price. Correlation analysis gave evidence on the same kind of relatio ns concerning bilberries.