Porcini harvest brings considerable income for hardworking collectors
Lehtikuva / C.G. Hagström Porcini is also known as bolete or cep. The harvest began slightly late this year but it has proven to be generous especially in northern Finland.This autumn's porcini harvest seems promising especially in northern Finland. The best collectors manage to harvest dozens of kilograms of the mushroom in a day, and some hardworking families are believed to earn thousands of Euros weekly. Earning a decent paycheck requires also hard work - porcini tend to spread across pine forests and the untrained eyes do not easily spot the mushroom, which often hides under moss or lichen.
An expert in porcini business, Loreno Dalla Valle, who has been dealing with the mushroom for 26 years, is delighted with the popularity of the new buying sites which he opened in northern Finland this autumn. According to Dalla Valle this year's harvest has been of exceptionally high quality.
Dalla Valle Oy has exported porcini to its major export target Italy up to 1,1 million kilograms a year. The record year 2003 saw an export of 80 truckloads of porcini from North Karelia to Italy, where they are used even for flavoring ice cream. The average export quantity has been 300,000 kilograms per year.
First class, firm, wormless and light piped porcini were bought at Vaala market for 6 Euros per kilogram. Second class mushrooms were bought for 2,5 Euros, and the lowest grade porcini harvest was bought for 1,3 Euros.
- This year's harvest is better than average. But it's not as good as we had it six years ago when we ran out of boxes, storage space and money to pay for the porcini, remembers a collector in Vaala.
