Japanese Ambas­sador to Finland Mr Takashi Okada’s company visits in North Karelia, Finland

On August 30, 2024, His Excel­lency Mr. Takashi Okada, the Japanese Ambas­sador to Finland accom­panied by two Embassy diplo­mats visited three North Karelian companies which are forerun­ners in their fields of expertise. The deleg­a­tion was in the region for the BIOSYS Hokkaido Sakura seedling trans­planting ceremony sched­uled for August 31, the North Karelia Region Day.

Nordic Koivu Ltd., Municip­ality of Tohmajärvi

Tohma­järvi, a medium-sized North Karelian municip­ality with about 4,000 inhab­it­ants, is a good place to enter the world market and reach Japan. This has been proven by Nordic Koivu Ltd., located in the municip­ality. The company is the world’s leading producer of birch water (birch sap), whose main market areas are Central Europe and Asia, including Japan. The company produces the purest birch water in the world on an indus­trial scale for both consumers and industry (food, drinks, cosmetics, pharma).

“The company has been exporting to Japan for years and the goal is to increase it,” said Mr. Arto Korhonen, Co-founder and CEO of Nordic Koivu Ltd. 

Mr. Korhonen and Ms. Tiina Honkanen, Quality Manager gave the Embassy Deleg­a­tion a tour of the factory and gave a present­a­tion on how the sap is collected as well as the business overview.  We then tasted both straight birch sap and condensed one.

Mikko Löppönen, Mayor of Tohma­järvi, mentioned that the municip­ality has had business and educa­tion cooper­a­tion in Japan in the 1990s and 2000s. Contacts are still maintained today. This shows that even a long distance is not an obstacle to cooper­a­tion between both companies and public sector actors if there is mutual interest.

Savon Voima Ltd., Joensuu Power Plant

Biosys Japan project’s target regions in Japan, Nagano Prefec­ture and Hokkaido Prefec­ture, as well as many other areas of Japan, aim to signi­fic­antly promote the use of renew­able energy by 2050. This may have been one of the reasons why Ambas­sador Okada wanted to visit  Savon Voima’s Joensuu power plant. The power plant produces district heating and electri­city from local energy sources, such as wood chips and peat on a small scale, which will be completely phased out by 2026.

“The goal is to have carbon-neutral electri­city produc­tion by 2027 and energy produc­tion by 2030,” said Opera­tions Manager Mr. Veli-Matti Kuronen. Savon Voima has an extensive invest­ment programme underway, including the construc­tion of heat pumps (approx­im­ately 6 MW) and district heating storage in Joensuu. The guests learned that Joensuu Biocoal Ltd. plant, the largest industrial-scale bio-coal produc­tion plant in Europe, owned by the invest­ment company Taaleri, is also under construc­tion in the power plant area, and the waste heat released from the process will be utilised in Savon Voima’s Joensuu district heating network. In addition, a green hydrogen produc­tion plant and a solar power plant are planned to be built in the area. Savon Voima’s Joensuu power plant can serve as an example to our Japanese partners of how a power plant that previ­ously operated mainly on oil and peat has already developed into an almost carbon-neutral modern power plant, around which many other kinds of green trans­ition produc­tion are being built. And, of course, we hope that there will be a market for North Karelia’s forest and energy sector know-how and techno­lo­gies in Japan, as the country increases the utilisa­tion of its forests and the produc­tion of renew­able energy.

Arbonaut Ltd.

Third place to visit, Arbonaut Ltd, is a great example of how North Karelia’s forest expertise is in demand around the world. The company, which celeb­rates its 30th anniversary this year, has exported its expertise in forest ecosystem invent­ories, forest opera­tions manage­ment, ecolo­gical risk assess­ment and forest inform­a­tion systems around the world, including Australia and South America.

Dr. Tuomo Kauranne, Chairman and President, Mr. Jari Kinnunen, Chief Sales Officer, Mr. Yoshito Shimizu, Business Developer, Mr. Mikko Saarimaa, Head of Forest Opera­tion Manage­ment presented the guests the corporate overview with an emphasis on its recent Japanese operation.

The company is currently devel­oping a local­ised inform­a­tion system with Preci­sion Forest Measure­ment Ltd in Nagano. Among other things, the project digit­al­ises the forest planning process and creates maps that support decision-making. In the discus­sion, it was noted that Japan is gener­ally a techno­lo­gic­ally advanced country but is a little behind in the digit­al­isa­tion of forestry. We also learned that Japan’s forested area is 25 million hectares, which is slightly larger than Finland’s. Mountainous areas with steep slopes and soft soil create challenges for the utilisa­tion of forests. Arbonaut Ltd has long-standing relations with Japan. Dr. Kauranne said that he visited Japan for the first time at the turn of the millen­nium and will next go there in the autumn. Arbonaut was actively involved in the first phase of the North Karelia-Japan project in 2020–2023. The company believes that the deepening cooper­a­tion between actors in North Karelia and the networks created in the project have helped the company find new contacts and customers.  By working together, we are also more convin­cing and can offer functional solutions to the needs of our Japanese friends to develop sustain­able forestry.

During the Ambassador’s visit, Ms. Naomi Moriyama, Commu­nic­a­tions Specialist from the Regional Council of North Karelia presented the BIOSYS North Karelia Inter­na­tional Growth Ecosystem and was delighted to host the Ambassador’s visit and engage the deleg­a­tion with concrete business stories. The BIOSYS Ecosystem supports the region’s economic growth in green and clean trans­ition, having the mission to build and deepen the long-lasting relation­ship and region-to-region collab­or­a­tion, RDI and business activ­ities between North Karelia and Prefec­tures of Nagano and Hokkaido partners in forest bioeconomy and food solutions. BIOSYS together with partners supports the growth of know-how and inform­a­tion exchange and joint devel­op­ment between regions and the growth of mutual and two-way inter­na­tional trade between companies. Overall, the visit of the Japanese Ambas­sador was very successful. We hope that the good cooper­a­tion with the Embassy of Japan will continue, fostering prosperity for North Karelia and the Japanese cooper­a­tion regions.

Does your business want to join the BIOSYS North Karelia Inter­na­tional Growth Ecosystem?  Please contact Timo Leinonen at [email protected]