TRACE YOUR PRODUCTS
K Group is constantly striving to improve the transparency of its purchasing chains. On this website, our customers can find out more about where the products they purchase from K Group stores come from.
THE PRODUCTS
Where do mywear t-shirts, Pirkka and K-Menu tuna products, Pirkka Fairtrade roses, and PROF Timber sold in our stores come from? We want to increase the transparency of our purchasing chains by providing information on the origin of our products and their journey to our stores. Choose a product to find out more.
BANANA
Bananas are a long-standing favourite among Finns and one of the best-selling fruits in K Group grocery stores. All organic Pirkka bananas are also Fairtrade certified.
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The story of a T-shirt
The men’s Cole T-shirt made of GOTS certified organic cotton is the most popular product in K-Citymarkets’ own mywear selection.
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TRACING TUNA
Tuna is one of the most popular fish species and easy to cook. All our own brand Pirkka and K-Menu tuna is MSC-certified.
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FAIRTRADE ROSES
Finland sells the most Fairtrade flowers per capita in the world. Fairtrade premiums have a significant positive local impact on local communities in Kenya.
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CERTIFIED TIMBER
PROF Timber is PEFC-certified Finnish wood. Its origin is traceable, and waste is reduced in its production through packaging development and by offering products at fixed lengths.
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Canned pineapple
Is it ok to add pineapple into a pizza? This question really has divided opinion. Anyhow, canned pineapple is a favourite of the Finns. Take a look at the supply chain of Pirkka and K-Menu canned pineapple in more detail.
MoreHIGH-QUALITY PIRKKA FAIRTRADE ROSES ARE LONG-LASTING
HIGH-QUALITY ROSES
Pirkka Fairtrade rose is one of the most popular Fairtrade products in Finland. Most Pirkka Fairtrade roses come from Fairtrade-certified flower farms in Kenya. Optimal climate and other conditions, timely harvesting, on-site packaging, and well-designed logistics ensure the high quality of the cut roses.
LONG-TERM COOPERATION WITH FAIRTRADE
Pirkka Fairtrade roses first appeared in K-food stores in 2006. Today, K-food stores also sell Pirkka Fairtrade spray carnations and floribunda roses. Each year, K-food stores sell around 2 million Pirkka Fairtrade rose bouquets.
FAIRTRADE PREMIUMS SUPPORT LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Farmers are paid a guaranteed price and a Fairtrade premium for the products. Fairtrade premiums have been used to build day-care centres, schools and healthcare centres for local communities, as well as housing for workers. In 2025, K-food stores paid a total of €348,300 in Fairtrade Premium to farmers for Fairtrade flowers.
LONG-LASTING JOY
Cut roses can thrive in a vase for up to three weeks if you take good care of them. Roses need plenty of water and thrive in deep water. A freshly cut absorption area – as well as clean tissue that is intact at the base of the stem – ensure unhindered access for water to the conducting tissue in the stem. Roses keep longer when they are not exposed to draughts, heat or direct sunlight.
ROSE FARMING
Most Pirkka Fairtrade roses come from Kenya. The sunny weather in Kenya is ideal for rose farming throughout the year as Kenya’s location on the equator provides for daily sunshine, with only minor changes in temperature. Kenya also has excellent transport connections.
Small quantities of roses are also sourced from Fairtrade-certified flower farms in Ethiopia. The big Pirkka Parhaat Fairtrade rose sold during spring comes from Ecuador.
Saumu Nyadzua works at the Penta Flowers farm.
Photo: Fairtrade, Vincent Owino
Many species of roses
When choosing a rose species, attention is paid to the length of the stem, resistance to plant diseases, strength and suitability for the weather conditions in Kenya, as well as yield per square metre. Important selection criteria also include current trends, the beauty of the rose, the flower opening duration and the vase life.
Colours change by the season
The colours of the roses sold at K-food stores are chosen based on customers’ preferences and the season. Cold colours, such as pink, are favoured in the spring. Warm colours, such as orange and yellow, are popular in the autumn, while red and white are Christmas favourites.
SUSTAINABILITY AND QUALITY ARE MONITORED
Working conditions are monitored through social responsibility audits
We ensure social responsibility in our suppliers’ production with third-party audits. Attention is paid to the working conditions in factories and plantations, including occupational safety, salaries, working hours and compliance with the ban on child and forced labour.
Fairtrade audits ensure that working conditions, labour rights and the use of Fairtrade Premiums are in line with the Fairtrade criteria.
The Fairtrade criteria also take the environment into account
The Fairtrade criteria also include requirements related to environmental protection, aimed at promoting the sustainable use of soil and water resources, for example.
On Kenyan flower farms, environmental considerations are taken into account through practices such as reusing water and using renewable energy sources. Flower farms collect rainwater in pools for irrigation. If necessary, water can also be taken from wells, lakes and rivers.
Quality assurance
At K Group’s Quality and Product Development Unit, the laboratory monitors product safety and the quality of the company’s grocery brands and imports. In quality assurance for flowers, attention is paid to outer quality and product labelling, in addition to ensuring that the quality of the flowers remains high all the way to the consumer. During a preservation study, the preservability and shelf life of flowers are checked throughout the chain, from the packaging department in Kenya to the Finnish consumers.
FROM KENYA TO K-STORES
Roses are usually transported by air in temperature-controlled conditions from Kenya to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, the protective packaging is removed from the rose bouquets, their quality is checked, the stems are recut to create fresh absorbing surfaces, and the roses are placed in buckets with water and flower food. After this, the roses are transported to Finland in a temperature-controlled truck, which is taken by ferry from Germany. Once in Finland, the roses are delivered to Kesko’s central warehouse in Vantaa, from where they are picked for deliveries to K-stores. At best, the roses arriving in Finland are available to customers in stores the following day. The transport temperature of the roses is monitored throughout the journey to ensure product quality.
FAIRTRADE PREMIUM
In 2025, a total of €348,300 was paid in Fairtrade Premium to farmers for the Fairtrade flowers sold at K-food stores. The Fairtrade Premium is paid to farmers and workers in addition to the sales price. On flower farms, the workers are responsible for deciding how the Fairtrade Premium is used. The funds are intended for the social or economic development of the community.
Zipporah Moraa Ombiro is sorting Fairtrade roses into bundles.
Photo: Fairtrade, Vincent Owino
Fairtrade premiums have been used for many purposes on flower farms
- Building classrooms for the local school
- Purchasing school supplies
- Providing a water tank with clean water for the pupils of the local school
- Building a day-care centre
- Granting scholarships to students
- Improving workers’ living conditions
- Acquiring a bus for the personnel's transports
- Establishing a computer room
- Planting trees
- Providing healthcare services for preventing and treating illnesses
- Creating opportunities for sports and cultural activities in the local community.
K-food stores sell around
2
million Pirkka Fairtrade rose bouquets each year
Pirkka Fairtrade roses first at K-food stores in
2006
FLOWER FARMS
Pirkka Fairtrade roses come from several Fairtrade flower farms. Below, we present Nini Group, one of Kesko’s long-standing suppliers of Fairtrade roses.
Supplier: Nini Group
Nini is a rose-growing farm located on the southern shores of Lake Naivasha, at the heart of Kenya’s floriculture industry, where conditions are ideal for rose cultivation. The farm covers 60 hectares and grows more than 30 varieties of roses in different colours.
The farm is certified to the GLOBALG.A.P. and Fairtrade standards. Both are recognised sustainability standards under the Floriculture Sustainability Initiative (FSI).
Nini invests in biological crop protection and aims to transition entirely to biological plant protection methods by 2030 at the latest. Through the Fairtrade Premium, 70% of school fees are covered for more than 5,000 employees’ children. In addition, Nini has established a daycare centre where employees can access childcare services at a reduced cost. Nini also provides its employees with a daily lunch, covering more than 70% of the cost. The farm operates its own clinic as well, where employees receive healthcare services free of charge.
Nini Group flower farms
The farms are audited regularly by a third party (GlobalGAP audits), most recently in
2026
Fairtrade audits are conducted regularly on the farms, most recently in
2026
The farms have approx.
1,500
workers
The farms grow
125
million roses annuallyMORE INFORMATION
LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY WORK
Kesko Corporation is the only company in the world to have been included on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World list by Corporate Knights every year since the list was first established in 2005.
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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PIRKKA PRODUCTS
Do you have questions about the origin or qualities of Pirkka products? Contact K Consumer Service by phone on 0800- 0- 1000 or via email at kuluttajapalvelu(at)kesko.fi.
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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT FAIRTRADE
International Fairtrade began in the 1980s. The first Fairtrade product in the Pirkka range was Pirkka Fairtrade coffee, introduced in 1999.
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