Agriculture and Forestry Minister Petteri Orpo says that officials began Thursday to work out measures to ease the squeeze on the foodstuffs sector in the wake of the announcement by Russia of its ban on imports of a wide range of foods.
Orpo told Yle that a proposal will be made to delay scheduled cuts of 50 million euros in agricultural subsidies for one year.
A second measure is aimed at aiding the food processing industry replace lost orders from Russia. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry wants to increase state funding of sales and marketing efforts by the sector with the hope of expanding sales in Asia.
Finland also intends to look into whether or not the EU's 400 million euro agricultural crisis fund can be used to provide compensation to countries suffering from the sanctions imposed by Russia.
