When Jaana Husu-Kallio talks about her country, it is easy to forget she doesn\u2019t live in Maine.<\/p>\n
She has a deep respect for forests and the many industries they support. The same goes for coastal fisheries, local agriculture and thousands of fresh water lakes that dot the country. Even recounting tales of moose hunting along logging roads sounds familiar.<\/p>\n
As the Permanent Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry in Finland, Husu-Kallio isn\u2019t devoted to Maine. But she does think her country\u2019s campaign to develop a \u201cbioeconomy\u201d anchored in forest products, foods and renewable energy holds lessons for the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenges are the same, in the same way,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Husu-Kallio is visiting Maine for her first time this week to meet with economic development, trade and industry officials. She will give the keynote address at the annual Trade Day Friday in Portland put on by the Maine International Trade Center.<\/p>\n
The focus of this year\u2019s conference is Maine\u2019s place in the global bioeconomy based on renewable resources for traditional and advanced products \u2013 everything from aquaculture to microorganisms to biobased materials and fuel.<\/p>\n
Finland, with a population of 5.5 million, has emerged as a global leader in the field, and it has not happened by mistake, Husu-Kallio said. The country has relied on its forests for hundreds of years, from lumber and shipbuilding to paper. About 80 percent of Finland is forested, the heaviest tree cover in the European Union.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinland has always lived from its forests,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Starting in the 1990s, the country\u2019s robust paper industry started to decline, just like it did in Maine. Mills closed, workers were thrown out of work. But Finnish companies rebounded, switching production to packaging and other materials.<\/p>\n
Some mills switched industries entirely. A former paper mill in her hometown was recently converted to a recirculating aquaculture facility to grow rainbow trout \u2013 a development reminiscent of a current plan to cultivate Atlantic salmon at the former paper mill in Bucksport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still on our way,\u201d Husu-Kallio said. \u201cThe good thing is that the mills have been reopened, but the owner is different and the product is different.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2014, the Finnish government launched a program to expand its bioeconomy to $112 billion and 100,000 jobs by 2025. At the time, the bioeconomy made up about $82 billion, 16 percent of the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
Forest products are the backbone of that initiative and Finnish companies have come up with innovative products like cosmetics, biodegradable replacements for plastic straws and utensils, even wood fiber clothing. But the initiative also pushed value-added food products, advanced chemicals and medicines, water processing and biofuels, with a focus on sustainability.<\/p>\n
Finland\u2019s experience is inspiring for those hoping for a renaissance in Maine\u2019s forest industries. Five Maine pulp and paper mills closed between 2014 and 2017 and while the remaining mills are adjusting for new paper products, the loss sent the industry reeling.<\/p>\n
Yellow Light Breen, president and CEO of the Maine Development Foundation, said the state seems to be pulling its focus from traditional pulp and paper to other products, like Finnish companies did when they saw trouble in paper markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaine seems to get stuck in the \u2018we make paper\u2019 mindset,\u201d he said. Breen is part of Forest Opportunity Roadmap\/Maine, a plan to modernize the state\u2019s forest industry with investment, research and development to produce fuels, sugars, textiles and more alongside traditional paper products. About 90 percent of the state is covered in forest, the highest coverage in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe narrative has shifted a lot from a forest products industry that is dirty and dying to one that is innovative and exciting,\u201d Breen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Jaana Husu-Kallio talks about her country, it is easy to forget she doesn\u2019t live in Maine. She has a deep respect for forests and the many industries they support. The same goes for coastal fisheries, local agriculture and thousands of fresh water lakes that dot the country. Even recounting tales of moose hunting along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,6268],"supplier":[14674,12557,7091],"class_list":["post-63621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-forestry","supplier-finnish-government-valtioneuvosto","supplier-maine-development-foundation","supplier-ministry-of-agriculture-and-forestry-fi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63621"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=63621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}