We work for the Finnish people, so that we have cucumber on the table.
So that we have fresh produce in the shops.
That's our goal.
SIGGPAC is a family business where the whole family is involved.
We aim to produce the best possible quality,
that's our goal.
When you farm and sell something under your own name
it has to be good quality.
So we do our best to make sure we produce the best possible quality.
We have roughly 9 hectares of cucumber under glass roof,
with artificial light for all year farming.
The best thing is the quality.
They all praise our quality.
The cucumber lasts well and is always fresh,
as it leaves the facility the same day it has been harvested.
You can find our cucumbers in nearly every food store in Finland.
Jan-Erik Sigg is from Närpiö.
His parents made their living from a greenhouse,
so he was practically born in a greenhouse.
We had a greenhouse at home,
I think that's why they say I was born in a greenhouse,
though I was born in a maternity ward.
I did spend a lot of time at the greenhouse as a child.
Same thing with my children,
straight from the maternity ward to the greenhouse,
not home, but to the greenhouse.
You have to see it on your first day.
Times have changed,
farming techniques have developed
and pretty much everything.
You need much bigger production units to be able to make it today.
In the autum of 1987 we bought an old greenhouse
that was 2,400 square meters.
We farmed from the end of January until the end of October.
It was two of us and we had one person working for us at the time.
Niclas was two years old when we bought the first greenhouse
and he has been here ever since with his father.
You could say that more or less I was raised in a greenhouse.
We went there first thing in the morning.
Mom made us lunch in the coffee room
and then back to the greenhouse to continue working.
We were at the greenhouse from morning till night.
Andreas was born in 1989.
He has also spent a lot of time in the greenhouse.
Our daughter who was born in 1992 is also involved in the business.
I went from school straight to the greenhouse.
It was like my hobby
and I was always interested in seeing the greenhouses.
I didn't know of anything else,
but I wouldn't want to change anything of that time.
I am very happy for what it was.
The involvement of the banks have been essential to us,
as I started with my bare hands
and didn't get financing from home, not a cent.
But I did inherit something that's much more valuable,
the skill to farm.
He arrives to work 3:30AM,
goes through all the greenhouses
to make sure all the lights and the irrigation is working.
The first employees arrive around 05:00-06:00AM,
depending on whether it's Monday for example
when we have a lot of work.
They begin packaging and warming up the machines.
The box assemblers need to be warmed up as well.
This is how it rolls from Monday to Saturday.
Sunday is the only day we rest,
of course you still need to come here to make sure
that all the lights are on and the irrigation is working.
The unit I work in, has 64,000 plants.
We begin always with a clean greenhouse that has been disinfected.
New growing mediums and irrigation sticks are installed every time.
We fill the growing mediums with nutrients and water
so the plant has optimal growth environment when it arrives
The plants are 3 weeks old when they arrive from the breeder
and we plant the whole unit in 1 day.
We get the first harvest after 3 weeks
and we pick 6 days a week.
Cucumber can grow roughly 200g in 24hrs.
The lighting, irrigation and nutrients play a major role
in the growth of the cucumber.
Many things affect the growth of a juicy cucumber.
If the lighting is good, you will get dark green cucumbers.
We light 18 hours a day and the lights are off for 6 hours.
So the plant has a 6 hour night.
It needs it to rest.
This is an issue for us in the summertime.
Here in Finland the summer nights are so bright,
that the plant gets stressed as it doesn't get the rest it needs.
But autumn and winter are excellent for farming.
The plant is able to rest at night and doesn't get stressed.
I tend to say that she will let you know quick,
whether she feels good or bad.
The growth cycle of a cucumber plant is only 15 weeks,
after that old ones out, new ones in.
That's one of the benefits of growing cucumbers.
And then the whole process starts from the beginning.
In the past 10-20 years
different viruses have emerged that can spread to the greenhouses,
and this is what we are afraid of.
As the units are so big today, you are going to loose a lot of money
if you have to empty and quarantine the unit for 5-6 weeks,
clean, wash and redevelop everything.
So it's better that we spend more time on prevention of viruses.
In the beginning we clean and wash everything
and we always disinfect our hands when we enter the unit.
We follow a disinfection program of the unit between the growth cycles.
We spray the unit 3 times so that the house stays clean.
We are extremely careful with the personnel
Always when they enter or exit the unit for their brake,
they disinfect their hands and feet, as most often
the problems come from the external environment.
We also discover pests all the time.
Due to continuous farming, the heating is on all the time,
so there's always the threat of pests.
We mainly use biologic pest control.
We use predatory mites
and rinse the plants from bacteria and fungus.
This helps the plant, makes it stronger,
makes the roots stronger and prevents fungal diseases.
How you take care of the plant is important of course.
If you take good care of it, it produces good cucumbers.
It is much more difficult today.
You have more responsibilities these days,
you need to produce the best possible harvest each time
to stay in the marketplace.
The profits are so small,
that you cannot afford to make mistakes.
When my parents were farming,
they didn't need to be so carefull.
Today, it is a risky business,
all automation and irrigation needs to function perfectly.
We conduct analyses and everything has to be perfect,
so that we achieve the best possible harvest,
for us to be able to survive.
That's probably the biggest difference between then and now.
I have to say Easter is big,
Easter and Christmas.
And we sell a lot in the summer when everyone is barbecuing
and need some vegetables to go along with the meat.
And then there is always New Year,
January is a good month.
Everyone does their New Year resolutions
to eat better and become healthier.
Daily we sell approximately
50 tons, 40-50 tons depending on the harvest.
Weekly we sell roughly 250,000 to 450,000 kilos.
What separates us from the others,
well, I don't consider us competitors, we are brothers.
We cooperate, but the difference maybe is that
we pick the cucumber, we package it immediately
and in the evening the the trucks pick them up.
It's still fresh when it gets to the food stores.
It doesn't sit in some warehouse.
Yes, we have grown quite fast
and as we have built more greenhouses,
the number of people working for us for us has increased.
We need a lot of workforce in the greenhouse business.
We now have 130-140 people working for us.
And foreign workforce.
Roughly 90% of the people working for us are foreigners.
I came here 8 months ago
and I really enjoy my work.
My job is to take care of the cucumbers on a daily basis.
When you see how the seedlings grow and flourish everyday,
it's amazing to see how your contribution affects
the outcome of the harvest.
My wife is giving birth soon
and our plan is to stay and work here in the future.
I tend to say,
they become the people from Närpiö.
We have a great group of people here.
Everyone is happy.
Well, my dream is that our children will take over one day.
I knew from the young age
that I will end up here
and I wouldn't change this for the world.
I've tried other things,
but they weren't for me.
You learn a lot in practice,
what's it all about.
It is simply a lifestyle.
You have a job you need to do,
whether it's Monday morning, Saturday or Sunday.
you always need to be in total control.
If we talk about the future,
we have a construction project untill the end of 2019.
We're building another 3-4 hectares of greenhouses.
Without a doubt, the future looks bright.
At the same time there are more employment opportunities
as you need people here all the time.
This is a living organization.
You cannot shut it down for a week or two,
you need people here everyday
as something is happening all the time.
I hope that Jan-Erik will build more greenhouses.
It would be amazing for more Vietnamese people
to get employment opportunities here.
When we started, we didn't even dream
that one day we would be this big.
It boils down to years of experience
on how you grow a plant that flourishes.
It takes a lot of experience, time and development
to become a skilful farmer.
Jan-Erik is stubborn,
and I believe this is one of the reasons
why things have gone well.
This is his job, but it is much more, it is also his hobby.
We have no regrets
since we started in 1987.
Nothing at all.
Strength, willpower and hard work,
that's how it goes, one day at a time.
Seasons come and go...
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