A record number of berry pickers in the forest - but the berries are missing

But not least in Norrbotten, so far, the harvests have been anything but good, which worries both survivor pickers and companies that have invited them. Now stands the hope for the lingonberry.

The government is preparing the question that the companies that bring berry pickers with work permits should pay taxes and employers 'fees for the berry pickers' salaries. Today, the pickers are guaranteed a salary of SEK 21,500, no matter how much berries are picked. To this is added holiday compensation. The rules came in 2010 after many Thai berry pickers went bad and were blamed for berry picker trips here.

The uncertainty about what will apply in the future and last year's poor harvests meant that the carrier companies applied to the Migration Board for work permits for just over 6,200 Thais and 6,199.

Unfortunately, the cloudberry harvest was poor and despite everything looking promising for the blueberry season, berry pickers testify to the poor harvest.

In the old school in Brännberg between Älvsbyn and Boden, the Finnish company Bothnia Bär AB has hundreds of Thai berry pickers and their assistants. Rice farmer Decha Kaesaneha, like most others, has borrowed money to go to Norrbotten for berry picking. The income is important to providing for his family.

He is here for the sixth year and tells via interpreter Daniel Enqvist that he has good berries picking 100 kilos of blueberries a day.

- Now it's hard to find berries. It will be a long way to go to find. Hope we all can fight, he says.

The day we meet him, he and the others from the camp in Brännberg have been out in the woods for 12 hours. It rains from time to time and he is very happy about that.

-I hope now that the lingonberry grows well. I think they do. I hope we get good and fair prices.

The prices, yes they are high with the poor supply. According to several carrier companies we talked to, they pay anything between just over SEK 20 and up to SEK 30 a kilo for uncleaned berries.

The Thais come to Sweden via staffing companies, but are employed by the Swedish companies. The staffing company that supplied berry pickers to Bothnia Bär AB here in Brännberg and Gunnarsbyn has a representative in place. Prajuab Khemkhan is staffing manager and says that it is necessary to pick at least 30 kilos per day to get it all together.

Not everyone who is in the forest does the first year.

- But we do what we can to make everyone get together as much as possible and as few as possible go back. We hope for the lingon, that it will rain so that they grow and grow big. Everyone works hard to do the best, says Prajuab Khemkhan.