90 Years of Building Finnish-Swedish Business Relations

Kjell Skoglund, Marica Rosengård

The Finnish Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm celebrates its 90th anniversary in 2026. We have a long history, but in a larger context we are still young. Sweden and Finland formed a political union for more than 650 years, from 1157 to 1809, when Swedish kings and queens ruled over a large nation that for long times was one of the five big powers in Europe. Trade has always been important for our northern part of the world as we need many commodities and products – starting with the need of salt and textiles, metals and more advanced products. When Sweden and Finland started to develop their natural resources, wood and forest products like tar for shipbuilding, furs, agricultural and food products, and metal ores, the trade rapidly expanded. This was true both within the nation and with the neighbours Germany, Poland and Denmark, but also further away, Britain and the Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain.

As most of the goods were transported by sea, the passage between Stockholm and Turku was one of the major routes in the Swedish kingdom. Many Finns went to Stockholm and other Swedish cities to work, and many clever Finnish businessmen made fortunes on trade and shipping. This led to a positive development in Finland and a number of towns, Vaasa, Jakobstad, Karleby and Oulu were founded thanks to the increase in sea trade. New technology was also introduced to Finland via Sweden, construction of bridges and buildings, iron making and craftmanship. Thanks to Sweden Finland was included in the Western civilization, had a modern constitution with a European style administration, our Christian religion, an advanced educational system including a university and the right to make own decisions. The first industrial companies were also established during the Swedish period.

Sweden lost Finland to its fierce political competitor Russia in 1809, but trade relationships and other connections were never discontinued. Swedish companies could easily maintain their connections to Finland – the fact that Swedish still was a common language in business and finance made contacts easier and the large market of St Petersburg attracted many Swedes, among them Alfred Nobel. After Finland’s independence in 1917 Swedish companies rapidly increased their activity in their eastern neighbour. Thanks to the well developed Swedish industrial structure the trade deficit rapidly grew in favour of Sweden, which was a concern of both industrials and politicians in the thirties. As a consequence, the idea came up to establish a Finnish Swedish Chamber of Commerce. The goal was to promote trade between Finland and Sweden and to help Finnish industry to develop the export markets.

On the ninth of October 1936 a group of very influential decision makers gathered in Stockholm to form a new chamber of commerce, among them the Finnish ambassador JK Paasikivi, later the seventh president of Finland, and Axel Wenner-Gren, a Swedish industrial, founder of Electrolux and the father of the modern vacuum cleaner.

The second world war meant a disruption to the promising activities of the chamber of commerce. After the peace agreement Finland needed foreign currency to compensate for the war indemnity as Finland was considered responsible for damages to the Soviet Union. The importance of our mission to develop the trade relationship was enhanced in the post-war years. The main obstacles were the licensing system and tariffs on foreign trade, including rigid currency transfer rules. Later the Swedish industry and the construction industry started to attract young Finns, who moved westwards to earn Swedish crowns – today more than 700 000 people have Finnish roots in Sweden, an important target group for example for the food and travel industry. Many Finns have reached high positions in Sweden, as businessmen, artists, administrators, politicians and decision markers.

In the sixties we received the position as Finland’s official trade mission in Stockholm, which also included a government grant for export promotion. Thanks to the financial support we were able to assist the booming Finnish industry in the sixties and seventies, when Swedes learnt to appreciate Finnish green jelly candies from Fazer and to wear T-shirts with bright coloured stripes from Marimekko. The first successful campaign for Finnish consumer products, Finn Finland, was launched in cooperation with the Foreign Trade Association of Finland, followed by later campaigns for subcontractors, public procurement, fashion, furniture and printed products. As Finland and Sweden entered the European Union in 1995, we launched the campaign ‘Äktavara’ to promote Finnish food in Sweden, a huge success, which brought back many famous Finnish brands to the Swedish retail market. The first IT and telecom boom in the eighties brought Finland fame as a  modern technology hub. During the same period Finnish companies acquired hundreds of Swedish businesses, metal workshops, chemical industry, wholesale traders, automotive factories and many more. This led to a change in our membership base – new categories appeared, industrial companies and technology providers joined the trade companies, law firms and banks, which earlier formed the membership majority.

Since the nineties we have focused more on consultancy tasks, in many cases tailor made for small and medium-sized Finnish companies. Our market advisors handle more than 400 inquiries annually and our ambition is to support the newcomers all the way to a successful introduction to the Swedish market. We have defined eight strategic areas, for example defence, food and agricultural products, IT and telecom, life science, energy and the latest addition, space technology. We aim to concentrate the activities as much as possible to increase the market impact. We have a proud heritage to manage - Sweden is now Finland’s most important trade partner and the trend remains positive. In an international perspective the trade exchange is unique – the variety of products and services is larger than for any other Finnish foreign trade partner. In the latest decade we have seen a shift from physical products to services and immaterial commodities – many Finnish companies have been able to introduce IT based systems, including AI solutions in Sweden.

The Finnish Swedish Chamber of Commerce has also been very visible in the Swedish market – for many years we published an own export magazine, Finland levererar, with support from the Finnish industry and the government and today we publish supplements in leading dailies and business magazines.

But firstly, we are a membership organization, a fact which sets specific requirements on our activities. From the beginning the Finnish Swedish Chamber of Commerce has enjoyed strong support from both Finnish and Swedish decision makers, which has laid a stable foundation for our development. Thanks to the unique network formed during ninety years our members represent more than 50 % of the total trade between Finland and Sweden. Our board, our representative assembly and our more than 500 members, of which almost 100 are highly appreciated gold members, work together with our staff to organize nonplus ultra events, seminars, business lunches, study trips and cluster activities with top class key note speakers. The number of participants has steadily increased, and we are proud to say that many occasions are sold out. The success reflects the fact that the axle between Sweden and Finland, established in the 12th century, is more important than ever. We enjoy the fruits of mutual cooperation and understanding; some of the most important Finnish-Swedish mergers and acquisitions of the last three decades were actually initiated at some of our business lunches or other events.

Financially we have managed to keep up a high pace and to finance our part of the Team Finland work – our members receive a lot of activities for their membership fee. Since 2026 our official Finnish government partner is the Foreign Ministry, and we are looking forward to developing the trade together.

As a personal reflection I would like to emphasize that the Finnish Swedish Chamber of Commerce as a third-party sector organization offers great flexibility and very good value for money. Thanks to our members we possess a network of contacts that no other party can offer. With ninety years of experience, we know how to assist companies in the very important task of entering a foreign market – we are based in Stockholm, but we are bilingual and we know the business culture of both countries. Today a membership is highly appreciated and considered as a valuable asset in the Finnish Swedish network. I am very confident that the Finnish Swedish Chamber of Commerce will have an important role also for the new generation of decision makers – our motto is innovation and rejuvenation.

Kjell Skoglund , CEO, Finnish-Swedish Chamber of Commerce