The Finnish Export Association was founded in 1919, in the back room of a shoe shop in Turku, Southwest Finland. The chairman and main financier of the project was Edvard Åström, a distinguished local businessman. In spring 1921 the Association moved to Helsinki and began to establish itself alongside the export organizations of the sawmill and paper industries. Immediately after its foundation, the Association started to create an international network of representatives, and placed correspondents and liaison personnel in different parts of the world. At first the Association mainly promoted exports of agricultural products, food products and a few emerging industrial products, and markets were sought in Eastern Europe. In the 1930’s the so-called “fourth group” of products emerged, the most important being furniture, but also including gifts, sports equipment and small dairy machinery.
In 1938 the Association changed its name and became the Finnish Foreign Trade Association (FFTA).
Systematic campaigning
The FFTA began to organize participation to exhibitions in the 1930’s. However, these activities were interrupted by the war and they did not restart until 1946. After the devaluation of the Finnish currency markka in 1957, interest in exports began to increase rapidly, and participation in fairs and exhibitions became more and more a systematic marketing tool for companies in various industry sectors.
In the early 1960’s the prospective deregulation of foreign trade created growing optimism in Finland with regard to exports. The view that export promotion activities should be focused on specific market areas gained strong support. In 1964 the FFTA decided to implement a few major events annually in selected market areas instead of arranging participation to separate exhibitions as had been done in the past, and the number of staff was increased to deal with the planning and execution of the campaigns.
The campaigns brought new business areas into the Association, as well as helped to increase the number of business contacts and improved knowledge of the target countries. The first big event arranged by the FFTA was the Finn-Finnland campaign held in Stockholm in 1966.
Export promotion centralized under the FFTA
Along with the growing optimism, interest in the export trade increased further, and many different organizations in Finland made export promotion efforts. The year 1968 saw a marked change of direction. All traditional budget allocations for export promotion were eliminated from that year’s budget proposal, since the government planned to establish its own export promotion organization.
However, the private sector succeeded in having the allocations restored to the budget. The government agreed on the condition that the private sector organize their export promotion activities centrally, and in 1970, it was decided to entrust the planning, preparation and execution of export promotion activities to the Finnish Foreign Trade Association.
The public and private sectors undertook to contribute equal amounts to the funding of the FFTA’s operations, which meant that the organization’s budget rose by 50%. The private sector’s contribution came from both organizational and corporate members.
A strong Board of Directors was elected to the FFTA to support the Managing Director. Especially important from the point of view of the FFTA’s activities was the connection with what is now the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers.
Export personnel training, export guarantees and export credit and trade policy issues were left outside the scope of the FFTA’s activities.
From export facilitator to internationalization expert
In the 1970’s and 80’s, the FFTA developed into a versatile export facilitator. Campaigns were organized for various sectors of industry, and the Export Partner Groups became an important form of co-operation between the FFTA and Finnish business enterprises.
Export consulting services were extended to the provinces of Finland in the 1980’s through regional offices where joint export managers were designated to deal with the needs of small and medium sized enterprises.
In fall 1992, the Trade Commissioners were transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the FFTA. This was a significant development in the Association’s history, and at the same time the Trade Commissioner’s tasks were defined in detail. They were to base their activities on assignments received from business clients, aiming at long-term export promotion for companies and business clusters in the countries where they were located.
In 1995, the FFTA and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) signed a framework agreement, which redefined the co-operation between the MTI and the FFTA on the basis of a buyer/producer relationship. In September 1997, the FFTA’s regional tasks were transferred to the new Employment and Economic Development Centers.
In 1996, the MTI commissioned an international evaluation of the FFTA’s activities, which led in the following years to restructuring of the Association’s administration and redefinition of its functions and strategy. As an external expression of these changes in the FFTA’s operational concept, the Association adopted a new image and a new name Finpro on March 4, 1999.
Export promotion is now only one aspect of Finpro’s activities. The sphere of tasks is broadly defined: to speed up the internationalization of Finnish companies while minimizing the risks involved, using the resources of its own organization and co-operating with other service organizations working the same goals – including the National Technology Agency, Tekes, Finnvera plc, the Employment and Economic Development Centers and Sitra, the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development Finpro promotes Finnish Business Solutions Worldwide.
Regional cooperation and industry sector networking
In December 2000, the Ministry of Trade and Industry set up a committee for promoting the exports and internationalization of Finnish enterprises. The key task of the committee was to specify the roles of the different actors that promote export and internationalization, and to determine the size of resources and cooperation needs of the organizations. The policies Finpro has established and implemented have been in line with the committee recommendations.
A visible indication of the strengthened regional cooperation with other service organizations and with operators in the so called “innovation environment” in Finland, was the opening of common service portal www.yrityssuomi.fi in February 2002.
The ever-changing situation in the global markets requires also flexible adjustments of the Finland Trade Center operations to areas with growing business potential. The Trade Center’s new operational model is based on regional and industry sector cooperation between different Trade Centers. This way, Finpro’s industry sector know-how and resources are more efficiently used and benefit the Finnish enterprises in competition abroad.
Networking with local partners and subcontractors in the target markets guarantees also the quality and competitiveness of the subcontracted parts of Finpro’s assignments.
A subsidiary to provide marketing services
Finpro’s international marketing and marketing communication services were incorporated into Finpro Marketing Ltd. at the beginning of 2002 (now Entre Marketing Ltd). Operations focus on a service concept built around international trade fairs and exhibitions and communication programs that promote the international marketing activities of Finnish companies. The small Finnish Export Association has become Finpro Group, an organization producing internationalization services, with a staff of almost 400 professionals based in Finland and in Finland Trade Centers around the world.
Managing Directors/Presidents
Eino Grönros (1919 – 1927)
Jaakko Kahma (1928 –1953)
Ilmari Voionmaa (1953 – 1963)
Lennart Henriksson (1963 – 1970)
Harri Malmberg (1970 – 1979)
Kaarlo Yrjö-Koskinen (1979 – 1983)
Pertti Huitu (1983 – 1997)
Seppo Härkönen (1997 –2001)
Tapani Kaskeala (2001 – 2006)
Jorma Turunen (2006-2010)
Kari Häyrinen (2010-