Farmers' Parliament: A historic decision in agriculture was made today

Today, on July 3, the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia unanimously adopted the following in the 3rd reading at an extraordinary session with 77 votes in favor: amendments to the Law “On the Privatization of Land in Rural Areas”, which is a significant step towards finally stopping the sale of agricultural land to investors, but would remain in the hands of the producers.

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Juris Lazdins, Chairman of the Association "Farmers' Council": "We cannot accept the situation that investors in Latvia own approximately 15% of agricultural land and that in some regions fictitious transactions where agricultural land is bought and sold amount to as much as 25%. In order to limit such activities, together with the Ministry of Agriculture two years ago we began work on amendments to the law "On the Privatization of Land in Rural Areas". We are aware that the adopted amendments to the law are a serious compromise and will not completely limit the availability of land for investment transactions, but we are pleased with the approval of the draft law in the 3rd reading in the Saeima and hope that detailed Cabinet regulations for the introduction of land acquisition restrictions will be developed already in the summer. We are at the finish line and will do everything to reach our destination together as soon as possible - the law will come into force in reality."

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We remind you that the amendments to the Law "On the Privatization of Land in Rural Areas" include criteria that would be applied to the acquisition of agricultural land in order to promote the use of agricultural land for its intended purpose - agricultural production, rather than investment transactions.

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The requirements of the amendments will apply to individuals whose existing land area already exceeds or will exceed 10 hectares after purchase, and for legal entities it is 5 hectares. The first place in the acquisition of land will be for co-owners, tenants, and those whose contracts are registered with the local government and the manager of the Latvian Land Fund.

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The draft law sets a limit of 2,000 hectares that can be owned by one natural or legal person at the national level, however, with the addition that local governments will be able to adjust area restrictions according to local circumstances, etc. land acquisition criteria.