Harvesting organic starch potatoes in Kauhava, Finland

Hermanni Huhtala has over 100 hectares of organic starch potatoes cultivated on his farm in Kauhava, Western Finland. In total he has an organic farm with over 500 hectares making his farm one of the biggest organic farms in Finland. The average size of an organic farm in Finland is 48 hectares which is significantly more than the average for conventional farms. 9% of the field area in Finland is certified organic.

The potatoes are processed to starch at Finnamyl Oy factory in Kokemäki on Thursday – so you can expect a new story from there later this week. Organic is still just a small part of Finnamyl’s potato starch production and therefore they have an organic production run only on three days.

This organic potato field is 1 km long.

The potato harvester handles 4 rows at a time.

The farmer Mr Hermanni Huhtala is operating the machine. Finnamyl CEO Mr Ossi Paakki is following how the harvest proceeds.

At the end of the row the harvester has to be emptied. Next Thursday these potatoes will have turned into white potato starch at the Finnamyl factory.