Farmers and horticulture entrepreneurs selling their companies amid high land prices

There was an increase in farmers and horticulturalists putting their companies up for sale in the last year, according to the realtors’ association NVM. Several of them are entrepreneurs who are retiring without a clear successor. The realtors association said they are selling to profit from high land prices.

Around 400 farmers and horticulturalists put their companies up for sale last year. That is an 11 percent increase compared to figures from 2022, the NVM reported. The NVM agriculture chair, Jos Ebbers, said he expects the amount of sales to rise further this year.

Farmland has become more expensive in the last year, with a price of almost 80,000 euros per hectare. That is 7.4 percent higher than two years ago and almost 30 percent higher than in 2019. The land prices are rising because agricultural ground is growing scarce, and their are several parties who want to own more of it, the NVM added.

Ebbers described it as a sense of "land hunger" in the agriculture world. “Whether it is for economies of scale and business development or for the use of manure,” he said.

Farmers and horticulturalists have mostly been selling to others in their field who want to expand, according to the NVM. They have also been selling off to buyers who want to live on the land or build a solar park.

Farmers have also been applying for the termination arrangement introduced by the national government to lessen the nitrogen emissions caused by the sector. Nitrogen Emissions Minister Christianne van der Wal reported two months ago that 489 of the largest polluters had applied to take advantage of the scheme.

The arrangement is meant to buy out agricultural companies that emit a significant amount of nitrogen in vulnerable nature areas. Farmers have until April 5 to apply for the scheme, but the Cabinet is trying to extend the deadline to the end of the year.