From averages to farm-level data: How Hankkija prepares for the future of grain trading.
Hankkija is Finland’s largest agricultural and machinery trade company, and part of the Danish Agro Group.
Hankkija works with thousands of Finnish farmers, forming a critical link between the Finnish primary production and the European grain and feed industry.
In 2024, Hankkija launched ‘Puntari’, a digital platform to collect primary data from farmers and share grain sustainability insights downstream in the value chain.
The platform enabled Hankkija to shift from average datasets to activity-based, farm-level data and insights.
By investing early in digital infrastructure and skills, Hankkija is positioning itself to lead in a grain market demanding detailed data, transparency and traceability.
“This platform has been really valuable. We’ve gotten an insight into what’s happening in the fields, seen where we could improve, and shared the first datasets with our customers."
Tarmo Kajander,
Hankkija
Introduction.
With over 120 years of history, Hankkija is Finland’s largest agricultural and machinery trade company and one of Europe’s top oat exporters. Since 2013, Hankkija has been part of the farmer-owned Danish Agro Group.
In 2024, Hankkija kick-started the work with Improvin’ to initiate farm-level data collection and share sustainability insights across the grain value chain, strengthening their leadership in the evolving grain trading market.
We spoke with Tarmo Kajander, Director of Feed and Raw Materials at Hankkija, about their decision to invest in a technological solution to support farmers and stay ahead of growing demands for value chain data and transparency.
The challenge.
Hankkija and its parent company, Danish Agro Group, have worked on carbon footprint calculations and grain and feed life cycle assessment for several years.
Recently, the carbon footprint of grains, regenerative agriculture, and biodiversity have emerged as recurring topics in grain trading.
Hankkija’s grain and feed industry customers have approached Tarmo’s team with inquiries, seeking to better understand the greenhouse gas emissions of their products.
Tarmo Kajander at Hankkija:
“Many companies have so far operated on the basis of average emissions and default values, and are now starting to look into using primary data to calculate the actual emission baselines for the grains they source.”
Hankkija, too, had previously worked with national averages, so shifting to activity-based primary data, capturing real on-farm practices, presented a challenge.
With thousands of farmers delivering grain each year, the solution had to be technically smart, scalable, and most importantly, easy to use for the farmers and Hankkija’s grain trading and sustainability team.
Hankkija turned to Improvin’ to find a fitting solution.
The solution.
In 2024, Hankkija launched its new sustainability platform, built on Improvin’s technology, to collect agricultural primary data from farmers and share the data-backed insights with buyers.
The new platform was named “Puntari”, which in Finnish signifies both a barometer and a scale, reflecting its role in measuring and monitoring farm-level sustainability. Hankkija’s farmers were invited to use Puntari to report their on-farm practices.
When asked what the reporting process would have looked like without Puntari, Tarmo is clear:
“It simply wouldn't be possible without Puntari. We work with thousands of farmers. There are so many data points that documenting them without a system would mean a huge amount of manual work. We would never have the resources for it.”
The investment in Puntari aligned with Hankkija’s broader mission. As a company at the center of Finland’s agri-food ecosystem, Hankkija sees it as its responsibility to ensure that Finnish farmers thrive in the challenging market, today and in the future.
As Finnish farmers are aging and the generational shifts bring the young, tech-savvy generation into farm leadership, technological solutions are an essential part of this work.
“A modern farm is a business just like any other. And there is a lot going on within the business. Ask any farmer: no one has time to fill in Excel spreadsheets. Things have to be automated and made easy for them”, Tarmo says.
Improvin’s award-winning user experience for farmers stood out as a decisive factor for Hankkija.
“If sharing data is not made easy for the farmers, we will not get that data at all.
It’s as simple as that.”
— Tarmo Kajander, Hankkija
The results.
The implementation of Puntari was swift.
Within just a few months of the decision to proceed, the system was fully operational, and all Hankkija’s contract farmers were invited to report their agricultural practices through the platform.
Once the data was collected, the first anonymized datasets and insights on emissions and farming practices were shared with selected Hankkija customers.
That same year, utilizing the data from Puntari, the Scope 3 calculations in Danish Agro Group’s annual ESG report featured primary data for the very first time.
Tarmo: “Overall, this platform (Puntari) has been really valuable. It’s only now that we’ve gotten an insight into what’s happening in the fields, seen where we could improve, and shared the first datasets with our customers. Without Puntari, there would be no visibility and nothing to share or analyze.”
Farmer feedback has been positive. Many farmers have appreciated the ability to monitor their emission footprints and see the impact of their practices.
Tarmo: “Although when it comes to farmers’ feedback, we in Finland tend to say: if you don't hear anything, you know that you’re doing something right.”
All in all, Hankkija is satisfied with their decision to invest in a technological platform to solve the challenges of scalable data collection and sharing data and insights downstream in the value chain.
Tarmo elaborates on Hankkija’s approach to technological innovations:
“When it comes to problem-solving with technology, we much rather sit at the front of the train than be the ones being pulled behind.”
Throughout Puntari’s implementation, Hankkija has appreciated the flexibility, collaboration and knowledge offered by Improvin’.
“Improvin’ has been a responsive and forward-thinking partner. They understand the realities of working with farmers and the complexity of our operations, and that’s been key to getting this right from the start.”
— Tarmo Kajander, Hankkija
Looking ahead.
Puntari is currently being integrated into Hankkija’s ERP system, which will give Tarmo’s team real-time access to sourcing data and sustainability reporting. In practice, this means that a new grain contract or grain delivery can now trigger a farmer reporting request with all key information pre-filled in Puntari.
Tarmo’s team is also looking forward to the platform’s enhanced data export and sharing capabilities.
Tarmo: “We are working on finding new ways of utilising the data we have, while trying to meet our customers at the level they expect and need.”
Reflecting on market maturity, Tarmo notes that using primary data for emission footprints and traceability in grain trading is still in its early stages. While the EU’s sustainability reporting timelines have been extended, the demand for transparency and traceability from stakeholders, investors and consumers is steadily increasing.
Tarmo: “When we think about the future and the market, we always expect things to happen much faster than they actually do. The way I see it is that if we were running a marathon, we've only just hit the five-kilometre mark. There’s still a long way to go.”
At the same time, laying the groundwork to meet future market demands is a long-term, strategic process. Hankkija is not only investing in new digital solutions, like Puntari, but also working internally to build the skills and capabilities needed to operate in a more data-driven and transparent agri-food system.
“At the end of the day, the market is already shifting, and when it accelerates, we’ll be ready.”
— Tarmo Kajander, Hankkija
