About us Polar-Honey Finland

High quality honey from Finland since 1945

Lappi-Hunaja is a family business, which is located in a small village of Lappi in Rauma, Satakunta county. Our family has had a tradition of beekeeping for over 75 years. In 1945 beekeeping became a main profession for Into Seikkula, and in 1991 the beekeeping business moved through succession to his son, Pasi Seikkula. Lappi-Hunaja is the most known honey company in Finland. The Finnish Beekeepers Association has praised our company with the highest title for the beekeepers “The Beekeeper of the year”. Our honey products have received numerous prices in competitions and received plenty of publicity in the media in Finland and also abroad.

We use a lot of time and effort for our honey, which means that producing rare honey products does not happen by coincidence. Years of experience and insightful development of production (for example tactical location of the beehives) allow the big selection of products with rarities unable to find elsewhere in the world. Our bees collect honey all around Finland. The most northern beehives are in the polar circle, where the midsummer nights and other nature phenomena allows the production of this unique rare honey.

In Central Europe our company is known by the name Arktischer-Honig Finnland. About 85% of our production is exported. Production and delivery are completely carried out by our company also abroad. You cannot find our products in supermarkets, because we are completely focused on sales in markets all around Finland and in Germany. You can find our products around the year in the shop of Lappi-Tupa in the centre of Lappi village in Rauma. Our internet shop serves customers with a sweet honey tooth 24/7 in three languages: Finnish, English and German.

The story of Lappi-Hunaja from the view of apiarist Pasi Seikkula

When I was a young boy I used to follow my father Into Seikkula caring the stinging, flying bees with his expert maneuver. The bees were very exciting and extremely interesting creatures for me. In the summer of 1979 when I turned 12, I got five beehives of my own as a present from my father. My father probably had the idea, that with this present he could raise me to take care of the company with him eventually. And that is exactly what happened. I doubt it though, that my father quite pictured me quitting my day job over a decade later for this passion and to make a career out of beekeeping as an entrepreneur.

Even today people ask me all the time, if I can sustain myself with this profession. The answer is, that you can, but it takes a lot of innovative approach and hard work. There are not many potential customers in the small countryside village in Rauma and not even in the close-by region, so right away in the beginning I had to travel further for the customers. I got to know Finland as a country when I travelled over 1000 days taking part on different markets and fairs. I adopted my father’s motto as a guideline of my work: “Everything you do, should be done well. If you don’t want to do it well, don’t do it at all”. Practically it meant producing top quality products, specializing in different honey types and careful study of the marketing of products. The customers need to feel the love the entrepreneur has for his products.

It’s hard to win in the away games, if you can’t succeed in the home field. In Christmas 2004 my company got the chance to try out its tournament abilities in Germany. It all went better than expected, even with the 80000 rival producers in Germany and the most quality-aware customers in the world. You cannot survive with the basic Finnish humble attitude in the foreign market, but you must take the effort to develop the products, pricing and brand as you would do for an expensive champagne. You should be aware of the cultural differences and know the ways of the country.

Polar Honey is surely the most known Finnish food brand in Germany, because during Christmas Markets about twenty million people see the market huts of our company. Already for some years our company has had about thirty Christmas Market selling booths all around Germany and every year over fifty workers from Finland travel there with the company. The turnover of the company is nowadays over million euros and it is rising steadily. But success and continual of it can never be taken for granted. It takes creative craziness, constant innovation and enthusiasm to develop the business. Even a small company can succeed abroad, when there is courage and faith in your own expertise.