The central union of Swedish-speaking agricultural producers in Finland (SLC) has 14 000 members. The farmers are located primarily along the southern portion of the west coast on the Baltic and along the western part of Finland’s southern coast (map). The Åland islands in the Baltic are essentially a monolingual Swedish area.

A sister organisation, MTK of 160 000 members is active in Finnish-speaking areas. The member associations of both organisations, side by side, promote basic production and agriculture in cooperation with consumers for the benefit of Finnish food and employment.

There are 4 provincial SLC unions for general management, information and training; ÖSP in Österbotten, NSP in Nyland, ÅSP in Åboland and ÅPF on Åland. 

The premises of the Central Union are loated in Helsinki. The highest decision-making power at SLC is in the hands of a Delegation. The executive body is SLC´s Board of Directors, assisted by a number of committees. They plan the matters of production sectors; milk, meat and corn production, ecological production, seed corn, market-garden production, entrepreneurship, social policy, pensions, financing, etc.

Own newspaper and magazine

The organisation has its own newspaper; Landsbygdens Folk (The people of the Countryside), which appears once a week. The newspaper is the only rural newspaper in Swedish. 

The magazine Lantmän och Andelsfolk is published once a month as an appendix to Landsbygdens Folk.

More information about the organisation can be obtained by the information officer Mia Wikström (+358-9-5860 4624).

Supervision of interests in Brussels

Finland joined the European Union on 1 January 1995. SLC, its Finnish-speaking sister MTK and Finn Coop. Pellervo have a joint representative in Brussels.

The representative makes sure that the EU’s machinery, Finland’s representatives and the various interest groups have an up-to-date perception of the objectives of Finland’s agricultural and forest policies. The representative observes the operations of the Committee of Agricultural Organisations in the EU (COPA ) and the General Committee for Agricultural Cooperation in the EU (COGECA ) and when needed, represents Finnish organisations within them.