A district court in Finland has sentenced Vernu Vasunta, CEO of berry company Kiantama, to three and a half years in prison for 62 counts of aggravated human trafficking involving dozens of Thai workers, reported Xinhua, quoting national broadcaster Yle.
Website dailyfinland.fi, which ran a write-up of the report, said Vernu’s associate, Thai national Kalyakorn Phongphit, received a three-year sentence for the charges.
Together with the two defendants, Kiantama, one of Finland’s largest berry companies, was ordered to pay over €600,000 (22.5 million baht) in compensation to the workers, along with legal and trial costs.
Thai berry pickers recruited for the 2022 harvest were misled about their income prospects and living conditions, the court said.
Once in Finland, they faced exploitative arrangements amounting to forced labour. Each picker collected 2,400–4,000kg of berries during a 10-week season, but most earned only a few hundred euros after deductions for travel, food, accommodation and vehicles.
The ruling noted that workers’ passports were often collected by camp supervisors, while many had signed debt agreements before arrival, leaving them dependent on the company. They were also not informed of their right to sell berries independently.
The defendants’ lawyers said they intend to appeal. The unanimous verdict has also renewed scrutiny of Finland’s seasonal labour system and the vulnerability of foreign workers in the berry industry, said Yle.
The situation of foreign berry pickers has long drawn public concern in Finland. After years of scandals and police investigations that resulted in trafficking charges against berry companies, reforms were introduced in 2024 requiring foreign workers to receive formal employment contracts and salaries.
In 2022, the Finnish Supreme Court sentenced a berry company owner to one year and 10 months in prison in one of the country’s first trafficking cases against berry purchasers.
Source: Bangkok Post