On 11 February the government approved amendments to the procedure for granting state aid for the purchase of agricultural land for agricultural production prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to promote the processing of agricultural land (AL) and production by increasing the loan limit up to 1 million euros.
The loan available to farmers for the purchase of agricultural land was set at 430 thousand euros in the current regulation, and has not been changed since 2013. Currently there are already farmers whose loan for the purchase of land has reached the 430 thousand euros specified in the regulations and they can no longer receive a loan for this purpose. However, it is important that productive farmers have the opportunity to purchase additional AL. Therefore, the future available loan amount per borrower or one unified company will be set at EUR 1 million.
The limit for the total area of non-agricultural objects that can be purchased together with agricultural land has also been increased from 20 to 30 percent.
Until now, the rules contained a restriction that no aid is granted for the purchase of agricultural land from related natural persons. The amendments provide for an additional restriction – the loan will no longer be granted for the purchase of agricultural land from interrelated legal entities. This provision will apply to loans issued after 26 February 2021. The rules also make a number of clarifications to improve the administration and implementation of the support program.
More information on support for the purchase of agricultural land is available on the website of the state-owned development finance institution “Altum” (www.altum.lv/en).
Information source: Ministry of Agriculture
