Consumers' desires guide food production. The Finnish food industry has pointed out four basic points stemming from consumers’ day to day habits: well-being, time restraints, experience-seeking and safety.
In addition, the trend of healthier food consumption is gaining more importance in Finland. Also different kinds of diets are quite popular. During recent times, there has been a lot of public debate concerning what kind of food is actually popular. During the 2000’s the healthy standards have been for low-fat food but this is changing and there’s a growing number of people who believe low-fat food is not actually so healthy. These people want to eat as little processed food as possible and the number of this group is growing. Thus, there is growing demand for less processed food.
A report by a committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry also indicates that, even though locally produced and organic food is still growing its popularity, Finland's taste buds have been seeking new international and multicultural flavours. Traceability and content display of food is important and enforced by law. Therefore, anyone wishing to enter the Finnish market should make sure to have their supply chain, packaging and labeling in order.
Finnish drinking habits mainly follow Scandinavian and European practices. Alcoholic drinks constitute an important part of a Finn's leisure time, weekends, holidays and, of course, saunas. During the summer holidays, from June to August, the consumption of alcohol is at its highest. A sunny summer day will particalarly result in increases in the consumption of beer and wine, in particular.
Consumption of wine and long drinks has increased in recent years, and as a result more "European" forms of drinking behavior are becoming more and more popular. Still, the total consumption of alcohol has decreased during the last two years. Consumption of alcohol at lunchtime is less common in the business world than before, and in the public sector it is extremely rare.
Finns are coffee drinkers. The annual consumption of roasted coffee per person is the highest in the world. In Finland, the consumption of coffee varies yearly between 9 to 10 kilos per person, while the EU average is around 5 kilos per individual. Coffees come in a range of varieties, but Finns would seem to prefer their lighter roasts (probably because coffee is drunk by the gallon). A Scandinavian light roast tastes very different compared to the darker French and Italian roasts. There is a growing café culture, and the popularity for specialty coffee drinks has grown rapidly.
A fact worth noting is that coffee is Finland's most important fair-trade product. Fair-trade coffee and other fair-trade products are growing in popularity every year. The most popular fair-trade products have been coffee, wine, flowers, bananas and cotton products.
The fastest growing group of non-alcoholic drinks in the 2000’s has been bottled water. The growth is due to undeveloped markets, changes in drinking habits, healthier lifestyles and recent hot summers. Finland is not only an importer, but also a producer in this growing market.