The spatial characteristics of the livestock and meat trade in Finland with special reference to slaughterhouses

Abstract

This study is concerned with spatial and functional features of the livestock and meat trade in Finland. Slaughterhouses are the central starting‑point, because the study material has been obtained from them by the method of inquiry. The network of supply areas for slaughterhouses in Finland is found to be highly complicated. Overlapping of these areas is chiefly evident in the south, south‑west and west, where meat production is most intensive. Meat distribution by slaughterhouses (how meat is apportioned to the wholesale trade of carcass meat, to retail outlets of slaughterhouses themselves, to processing and prepared food factories) and marketing are shown with the aid of spatial models. As terminal points in the flows of meat marketing, Helsinki and Uusimaa as a whole proved to be of quite central importance. A weaker flow (mainly pork) is directed east and northward from the over‑production areas of the west and south-west.