Vantaa is home to one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Helsinki metropolitan area. It is Fazer’s visitor center in an industrial area, with more than 200,000 visitors a year.
First the nose is flooded with the smell of baking biscuits. Maybe chocolate cookies are made today?
We are in Fazerila, ie in the area of Fazer’s production facilities in Vaarala, East Vantaa. The scents of the biscuit factory reach as far as the lobby of the visitor center.
In front of it is a small green area in the middle of which grow various cereals. Fazer wants to tell visitors that the raw materials used in its bakery products are domestic.
In The visitor center, completed in 2016, is a low-rise, bright building. Kind of Scandinavian. The shape of the center is round like the company logo.
However, this slightly secluded complex is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the metropolitan area.
Fazer’s visitor center was completed in 2016. More than a million visitors have visited it since it opened.
On the day of the talk, the first hours of the morning are quiet at the center, as the group that has booked a round of nine has had to cancel their participation.
However, there are already people in the cafe. Some work, some enjoy their morning coffee.
The store side shopping Sirpa Piira and Marje Nybom. The district is from Espoo, Nybom Vihti.
The friends are at the Vantaa Visitor Center for the first time.
“I called Sirpa yesterday and asked if I would leave here,” Nybom says.
Fazer’s best-selling single product has remained the same from one decade to the next. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Fazer’s Blue launch.
The district is on summer vacation. Nybom, who works as a real estate agent, doesn’t have very many vacation days in the summer, but a visit to Fazer appealed to both.
“This is the much talked about short-distance tourism in the best possible way,” says Nybom.
Even a guided tour would interest women, but this time it will be missed.
“We set aside half a day to go, and we’re really going to make the most of it,” they say.
Marje Nybom (left) and Sirpa Piira came to buy candy. “I don’t remember if I’ve ever seen such a huge number of candy bags on a shelf. You probably have to take a picture, ”Nybom mused.
Get ready the duo do not have a shopping list, but sweets and chocolates are to be purchased both at home and in the closet. The district takes some of its purchases as gifts.
“And of course you can’t leave here now without Fazer blue,” Nybom says.
The Helsinki Olympics in 1952 were featured in Fazer’s production.
When young Karl Fazer embarked on a study trip to St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Paris in 1884, he certainly could not have imagined the consequences of the trip.
Nearly 140 years later, hundreds of thousands of visitors visit Fazer’s visitor center every year.
In the record year of 2019, the visitor center had 231,000 visitors. About a third of them participated in guided tours.
Changes are coming to Fazerila in the next few years, as at the end of May Fazer said it was planning to build a confectionery factory in Lahti. The new plant would replace the plants currently located in Vantaa and Lappeenranta.
Read more: Fazer plans to build its new confectionery factory in Lahti
The operations are to be transferred to the new plant in Lahti in stages during 2025–2027. However, Fazer’s headquarters, bakery and visitor center will remain in Vantaa.
The visitor center has a tropical conservatory with a temperature of 25 degrees and a humidity of about 90%. The garden grows, among other things, the fruits of the cocoa tree shown in the picture.
Visitor center is open almost every day of the year except Midsummer and Christmas.
The guided tour gives you an insight into food production and the history of Fazer confectionery. The tour starts in the tropical conservatory. It grows raw materials such as cocoa beans, ginger, coffee beans and chili.
“In this way, we bring raw materials close to our visitors so that Finns can see what they look like and how they grow,” said Communications Manager. Taina Lampela-Helin says.
Rowan is Fazer’s oldest confectionery still on sale. Its manufacture began in 1895.
Sometimes the smells of familiar sweets hover in your nostrils. Dumle is easy to identify – and Marianne!
Among other things, the visitor center has a Cocoa Forest wall that tells about cocoa production.
A young man living in the village of Biéby in Côte d’Ivoire Justinewoman tells the viewer the story of her family. The village has a Fazer farmer program that produces cocoa, the most important raw material for chocolate.
During the round, the mind is overwhelmed by longing. After all, cocoa and chocolate may be just a memory in the future.
As the equatorial climate heats up and dries, cocoa can no longer be grown. Then the industry of cocoa farmers will also wither.
Read more: Rising Coffee May Be the Beginning – These Everyday Foods May Be Expensive Luxury Treats in the Future
The tour ends at the tasting point. Its delicacies are meant to be eaten on site. You can get a product bag to take home.
In the winter garden, you can see familiar ingredients from the kitchen that you will not encounter in Finnish nature. The pineapple in the picture grows wild in the tropics.
Clock the guided tour starting at eleven is about to begin Pirkko Pietilä his son Timo Siian with. Siia’s godson is also involved.
Pietilä lives in the South Hague, Siika has come from Asikkala Vesivehmaa in Päijät-Häme. He says he is a farmer who produces organic wheat for Fazer.
Timo Siika produces organic wheat for Fazer’s mills in Lahti.
Whitefish bought tickets to surprise his mother and godson. He says he has visited Fazer before, as a child.
“There’s really no memory left of that visit, but I’m involved with an open mind today.”
For Pietilä, the visit is the first. He says the image gets in a good mood.
“We have never been disappointed with the products. When it comes to Fazer, at least I think of chocolate first. That real blue. ”
Read more: This is how the million project went to the side: Fazer does not make a giant investment in Vantaa, because there were surprises in nature
Read more: Fazer plans to build its new confectionery factory in Lahti
Read more: Fazer divests all operations in Russia
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