The project, called Healthy China, has already been underway for a year-and-a-half, but so far activities have centred on assessing Chinese care models and key actors. On the Finnish side the coordinators are Tekes (Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation) and Finpro, a consultancy that aims to accelerate the internationalization of Finnish companies while managing the risks; in addition to public authorities the Chinese partners are Huashan Hospital in Shanghai and Hudan University.
The project may open up opportunities for Finnish ingredients companies to combine their expertise with that of Chinese partners, for instance applying their technologies to traditional Chinese medicine.
Jaani Heinonen, chief representative of Tekes Shanghai, said this would be "a fascinating new area".
According to Tekes, there is a need for measures that would help prevent lifestyle diseases in China such as heart disease and diabetes, as incidence has increased in recent times with adoption of Western-style eating habits and more sedentary work environments such as offices, particularly amongst the young.
The Finnish functional foods industry is one of the most developed in Europe. According to Euromonitor International, Finland's fortified/functional food market was worth US$245.3m at retail in 2005. While the leading, German market was valued at almost nine times as much ($2.27bn), Finland's population is estimated at around 5.2m, whereas Germany's is around 82.4m (CIA World Factbook 2006).
Although in value terms China's functional/fortified food market exceeds Finland's at $708m according to Euromonitor, its population is thought to be around the 1.3bn mark - with only the very top tier able to afford such products as are usually sold at a premium.Amongst Finland's leading innovators in field are Valio, which has conducted significant amounts of research in the field of probiotics. Raisio, the powerhouse behind the Benecol brand of plant sterols that is a now used in products around the world. Finland also claims to be the birth place of the sweetener Xylitol which sprung to fame for its role in preventing tooth caries.
Nor is it resting on its laurels: In May of this year a joint strategy created by the Finnish food and nutrition sector and published at the Finnish Food Congress in Helsinki seeks to make Finland a forerunner in healthy nutrition with a sharp competitive edge by 2015. Beyond the food industry, Heinonen said that the know-how and tools available in Finland are "unique even on a global scale". The claim was based in part on work of organisations like the National Public Health Institute and the Finnish Heart Association in disease prevention and health promotion.
One of the objectives of project on the ground is the establishment of a Finnish-Chinese Centre at the Key Lab of Health Technology at Huashan Hospital, which would offer a disease management programme, information technologies for diagnisis, monitoring and risk management, and advice to patients suffering from lifestyle diseases.
Full expansion of the project is forecast for 2008. "Our ultimate aim is to find a comprehensive business model that enables us to expand the pilot project to other sectors," said Heinonen.