News

The application for area payments and the deadline for grassland mowing have been extended

15. August, 202316. August, 2023

Area payments

In order for farmers to be able to apply for types of support that would be suitable for farms and for which they did not apply until June 26, the application deadline for area payments has been extended this year. Corrections to the geospatial application, as well as new applications, can be submitted until August 31 of this year. It should be noted that a 10% reduction will be applied to the newly requested type of support.

We draw attention to the fact that those farmers who will submit additions and new geospatial applications should expect possible additional controls to ensure the truth of the given data. On the other hand, applications submitted in time by other farmers to receive advance payments, will not be affected by this process.

Grassland

Meteorological conditions, which have been outside the norm in the spring and summer of this year in Latvia, have created difficulties for some farmers, especially those involved in animal husbandry – to mow and harvest hay or grass for fodder.

In April, May and June, the total amount of precipitation was well below the monthly norm, therefore, during the development phase of grasslands, there was a drought in Latvia, which seriously hindered the growth of grasslands.

On the other hand, in July and the beginning of August, an increased amount of precipitation was observed in Latvia, as a result, farmers in many places have had difficulties with cutting grass until August 15, which is set as the date by which the grass must be grazed or cut in order to receive EU support payments in full amount.

Taking into account the unfavorable weather conditions, the Ministry of Agriculture has provided an indentation for farmers, extending the deadline for mowing lawns until September 15 for those lawns which, due to frequent rainfall and high humidity, will not be mowed until August 15. In 2023, those areas of grasses sown in arable land, pure-sown buttercups and perennial grasses that will be grazed or mowed by September 15 of this year will also be recognized as eligible for receiving direct payments.

The Rural Support Service, when conducting inspections and evaluating the fulfillment of the requirement for grassland mowing, will pay attention to cases where the provided indentation is used with malicious intent in order to avoid the fulfillment of the support payment requirement for grassland mowing.

Information source: Rural Support Service, Ministry of Agriculture

Farmers can report severe storm damage on the RSS mobile app

10. August, 202316. August, 2023

After the storms experienced on August 7, which caused damage in several regions of Latvia, it is necessary to identify the current situation in the agricultural sector in the regions affected by hail and storm.

To report affected areas and identified losses, from August 11 to 25 of this year, we invite farmers to send pictures and a brief description of the damaged agricultural machinery, infrastructure, and damaged crops in the authorized version of the Rural Support Service mobile application (letter type “Hail damage”), indicating the crop and its volume in hectares.

Detailed information about the service’s mobile app and its usage options can be found in the “Mobile app” section of the Rural Support Service website.

Farmland prices tripled over decade in Latvia

30. June, 202230. June, 2022

Within a couple of years, the price per hectare of agricultural land has increased by EUR 500 but has at least tripled in ten years.

Over the last decade, agricultural arable land prices in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have increased more than three times. It is the most expensive in Latvia, the cheapest in Estonia, as estimated by Luminor Bank. The price increase was also acknowledged by the real estate market company “Latio” – on average, land is becoming a tenth or 500 euros more expensive each year, currently reaching from €2,000 for the less fertile and harder-to-access lands in Latgale and Vidzeme to €6,000 and more for fertile soils in Kurzeme and Zemgale.

“We used to buy land for 50 lats per hectare in Zemgale, the price is now EUR 10,000 and more, it is clear that the change has taken place in a grand way,” Mārtiņš Cimermanis, the head of the Rural Consultation Center, said. 

“The land will not go away anywhere, the land will always be there to buy. This has been the case at all times, but a challenge in Latvia is credit institutions and banks. In the past, they did not credit the purchase of land at all and, if credited, at very disadvantageous periods, very short. When, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, we introduced a land purchase programme through Altum, taking the German model, commercial banks also emerged. The aim was also to kick-start this land lending program,” Cimermanis said.

He thinks land prices in Latvia will even out in the foreseeable future.

According to Mareks Gurauskas, head of operations for small and medium-sized enterprises of the Luminor bank, price increases are likely to continue as demand exceeds supply, and agricultural land in all three Baltic States is liquid property, so the banks consider it to be a good pledge. The rise is driven by the war in Ukraine as it is a major exporter of cereals but there will be no harvests in many fields, which will lead to higher prices for products, with a growing interest in land.

The interest of foreign investors is also present, and skyrocketing energy prices encourage many to seek land for wind parks.

The experts refrained from predicting price ceilings in the coming years. Latvia has two million hectares of agricultural land, and the area is growing as soils are purified and cleared from shrubs.

Source: LSM