NJF Nordic-Baltic workshop: Towards a viable, competitive and resilient agri-food sector
Published: 31.03.2025 14:51

NJF Nordic-Baltic workshop: Towards a viable, competitive and resilient agri-food sector

NJF workshop, 16 September 2025, and Seinäjoki Food Days, 17-18 September 2025, in Seinäjoki, Finland

REGISTRATION FORM (there is no participation fee).

PROGRAM OF THE WORKSHOP

Image by Tapani Hellman from Pixabay.

Europe is experiencing turbulent times. Agri-food sector and rural areas have a key role in ensuring a well-functioning society and in securing that everyone has access to high-quality affordable food, fiber and energy.

Economic competitiveness, resilience and crisis preparedness play a pivotal role in ensuring viable, well-functioning Nordic-Baltic agriculture and food system. Agriculture and rural areas in the Nordic and Baltic countries share similar challenges stemming from natural and market conditions.

To resolve these challenges, technical, biological, economic and social innovations are urgently needed.

NJF is organizing a one-day workshop that focuses on the economic viability, resilience and crisis preparedness of Nordic-Baltic agri-food sector in turbulent times. The workshop is targeted to researchers and experts of companies and stakeholder organizations. The workshop will offer a possibility to meet and discuss about the viability, resilience and crisis-preparedness of agri-food system from the Nordic-Baltic perspective.

The NJF workshop will take place in Seinäjoki, Finland, in the day before the Seinäjoki Food days (17-18 September). The Food days is free-of-charge event that brings together food chain innovators to the best place for food business, to discuss how to sustainably grow in the food sector. The program of the Food days is already available here. Please note that the participants of must register separately to the NJF workshop and to the Food days (please see section “Registration and fees” below).

The program of the workshop will include three invited keynote talks and presentations that will be selected from abstracts offered to the workshop.

Invited speakers

The program will include three invited talks:

  • Dr. Csaba Jansik, Senior Scientist at Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), “The role of critical inputs in crisis preparedness – the case of Finnish food supply chain”.
  • Dr. Aleksandra Kekkonen, Senior Researcher at Estonian Business School: “Food Security and Resilience in Estonia”
  • Dr. Ólafur Ögmundarson, Associate Professor at the University of Iceland, What is the state of food security in Iceland? Are Icelandic food systems resilient if faced with crisis and how prepared are we?

Call for abstracts

We invite scientists and experts from different fields to propose their presentations to the conference. To propose a presentation, please submit an abstract around the following topics:

  • Resilience, risk management and crisis preparedness of agri-food sector and rural areas.
  • Competitiveness, productivity and efficiency in agriculture and food system.
  • Emerging issues in the Common Agricultural Policy, governance and agricultural commodity markets.
  • The future of farming, farmers and food system transformation
  • Models and applied methodologies to study food systems dynamics and trade-offs.
  • Enhancing economic and environmental sustainability, equity and fairness in the food systems.
  • Consumer preferences and consumption.
  • Free communications related to the theme of the workshop.

How to submit an abstract?

Please submit you abstract by using an online form that can be accessed by clicking here.

Abstracts can be proposed for oral presentations (15 minutes presentation plus 5 minutes for discussion) or for flash presentations (3 minutes (1-3 slides) presentation plus 2 minutes for questions). The organizing committee reserves the right to change the type of the presentation when compiling the program.

The extended abstract can be up to 2000 characters and it should explain in brief: Motivation of the study, objectives, material and methods, results and conclusion. Abstracts must be prepared in English.

Abstracts must be submitted as early as possible, and no later than August 22nd, 2025.

Abstracts selection

Abstract submission closes on the 22nd of August 2025 (24:00 CEST). Information about the acceptance of abstracts for presentations will be communicated by the 25th of August.

Abstracts will be assessed by the Scientific Committee at NJF for relevance and scientific quality. Accepted abstracts can participate in a competition for the best presentation.

Accepted abstracts will be compiled into an abstracts book that will be made available online at the NJF’s website. Participants will have an opportunity to submit their abstracts to Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica (standard peer-review process and fees of the journal will apply).

Programme

16 September 2025

8:45 Registration and coffee

9:15 Opening session

Welcome and introduction, Jarkko Niemi, President of NJF

Sami Kurki, University of Helsinki

Nordic collaboration in agricultural research, Sofie Andersson, NKJ

9:30 Invited talk: Food Security and Resilience in Estonia, Estonian Business School, Dr. Aleksandra Kekkonen, Senior Researcher

10:00 Assessing and strengthening resilience in agri-food supply systems, Karoliina Rimhanen, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) (flash presentation)

10:10 How local food systems can contribute to resilience in the Nordic and Baltic countries? Silvia Gaiani, University of Helsinki

10:30 An analysis of strengths, weaknesses, risks, competitiveness and development prospects of livestock farming in Finland, Jarkko Niemi, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

10:50 Short break

11:00 Invited talk: The role of critical inputs in crisis preparedness – the case of Finnish food supply chain, Dr. Csaba Jansik, Senior Scientist, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

11:30 The Nordic and Baltic countries play a major role in Europe’s growing media market — how can we respond to the challenges posed by the green transition? Johanna Kivioja, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences

11:50 Knowledge needs to strengthen the role of bioresources in crisis preparedness and risk management, Lillian Øygarden, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research

12:10 Lunch break

13:10 Invited talk: What is the state of food security in Iceland? Are Icelandic food systems resilient if faced with crisis and how prepared are we? Dr. Ólafur Ögmundarson, Associate Professor, University of Iceland

13:50 Risk management and preparedness tools for small food business enterprises. Jarkko Leppälä, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

14:10 Farm as a Common Workplace: Promoting Occupational Safety and Fluent Workflow in Multi-Professional Farms. Terhi Latvala, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) (flash presentation)

14:20 How to Assess Good Practices and Solutions at the Farm-level to Improve Performance and Resilience of European Equine Farms? First Experiences with the EUnetHorse Assessment Method. Leena Rantamäki-Lahtinen, University of Helsinki

14:40 Exploring the Competitive Potential of Animal Welfare in Finnish Food Exports: Insights from Expert Discussions. Katriina Heinola, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

15:10 Discussion and closing remarks

17-18 September 2025

Seinäjoki Food days (The program of Food Days is on a separate webpage. Please click here to see the program for 17-18 September)

Registration and fees

Participation to the NJF workshop is free of charge. However, the participants are requested to register to ensure that we will have enough coffee available.

Lunch break will be at the campus restaurant at participants’ own cost (buffet €12.40 per person, only cards are accepted).

Please register by using this online form by 14 September at the latest.

Registration to the Food Days is done separately at the Food Days website.

The participants who are not yet members of NJF, are recommended (not mandatory) to join NJF by using an online form.

Venue

The workshop will be organized in Frami in Seinäjoki, Finland (Kampusranta 9, 60320 Seinäjoki, Finland). Frami is an active hub of universities, research institute, companies and other organizations operating in Seinäjoki and in South Ostrobothnia, the food province of Finland.

Frami is located approximately 1 km from the railway station.

Travelling to Seinäjoki

Seinäjoki is located approximately 350 kilometers North-West from Helsinki. Seinäjoki can be reached from Helsinki easily by train. During the daytime there is a train connection between Helsinki and Seinäjoki approximately once per hour. See https://www.vr.fi/en for timetables and tickets.

When travelling from abroad by plane, Helsinki-Vantaa airport (HEL) is the main airport of Finland. There is a train connection between Helsinki airport and Seinäjoki, with about 3 hours journey time.

As an alternative, the closest local airport is in Vaasa (VAA), which is located approximately 80 km from Seinäjoki. Vaasa airport has direct flights to Helsinki and Stockholm. There is a bus running between Vaasa airport and railway station, which is about 10 km from the airport. The train journey from Vaasa to Seinäjoki takes about 1 hour. There is also a ferry connection between Vaasa and Umeå, Sweden. https://www.wasaline.com/en/route-trips/

Accommodation

The following hotels are within 5-20 minutes walk from the workshop venue:

Further information

Jarkko Niemi, President of NJF, jarkko.niemi@luke.fi

Silvia Gaiani, Secretary General at NJF.