Now both berries and mushrooms are ripening in the forests. For those with nimble fingers, there is a chance to earn a haul, and that too tax-free.
Fredrik Reinholdsson at Olle Svensson's wholesale store in Olofström explains that foreign employers for berry pickers have been stopped.
Instead, berry pickers must be employed by an employer established in Sweden. Following a government decision, it is no longer possible to obtain a work permit to work as a berry picker in Sweden, but permits can be granted under the EU's seasonal directive.
None have arrived yet, but between 1,000 and 1,200 Thais are expected here this year, says Reinholdsson.
That's fewer than in previous years, when between 3,000 and 4,000 came each year. At most, it was around 6,000, he says.
Private pickers
That should make berry companies more interested in targeting private pickers, says Roger Persson, buyer at the berry company Lotta-boden in Los.
He says that Lotta-boden likes to buy berries from private individuals locally. They process some of the berries themselves, but they also sell on to large buyers.
They come every other day and pick them up in large trucks, says Roger Persson.
Fredrik Reinholdsson believes that more berry buyers may come now. Perhaps this could also mean that more people go out into the forests to pick. But so far it has mostly been pickers who have traveled here from other countries.
More buyers
Gun Lidestav at Bär i vilden in Bjurholm says that they buy berries from local pickers.
"We encourage private individuals to pick. The youngest we have had was six years old and had picked four kilos. But of course he had his mother with him," she says.
"Bär i bygden" is a concept that started as a research project supported by the state research organization RISE, she says. The aim was to find a way to increase local food production. Now they hope that more Bär i bygden will pop up around the country and that this will mean that more people will take the chance to earn tax-free money.
For example, municipalities that arrange summer jobs for young people, or sports clubs that want to raise money for the club's coffers. But it requires initiative, and it requires that it be organized by someone who thinks it's worth it, she says.
For a long time now, selling self-picked wild berries, mushrooms and pine cones up to SEK 12,500 per person and year has been tax-free.
However, sales of cultivated berries are taxable.
Source: Swedish Tax Agency
The berry buyers are careful to ensure that the berries are picked in clean containers and that they are pure in variety, meaning they do not contain other berries or debris.
The berries should be of good quality, and not have been left to stand for too long and become mashed.
They are sold unpicked, which means that there may be leaves, twigs and needles. The debris is cleaned out in the berry companies' machines. Most blueberry and lingonberry pickers use berry pickers that tear the berries off the bush.
Now it is cloudberries and blueberries that are ripening, later raspberries and lingonberries will come.
Last year, the buyers' price for blueberries was around 30 kronor per kilo, 150 kronor per kilo for cloudberries, 100 kronor per kilo for raspberries and 25 kronor per kilo for lingonberries.
Source: Berries in the countryside
