Italy Prepares to Sell 800 Farms to Young Farmers

Italian farm­ers can buy thou­sands of hectares of land through­out Italy due to a new Bank of the Land ini­tia­tive.

The ini­tia­tive has been coor­di­nated by the Institute of Services for the Agricultural and Food Market (Ismea), which offers spe­cial financ­ing to inter­ested par­ties younger than 41 years of age in an effort to pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties to a new gen­er­a­tion of farm­ers.

Half of the 19,800 hectares put on sale by the bank is arable land, 22 per­cent is pas­ture, and the remain­der com­prises for­est, cit­rus groves, vine­yards and fruit orchards.

Dozens of olive groves are also on sale. Most of the 827 poten­tial new farms are located in Sicily (33 per­cent) and Puglia (9 per­cent). Meanwhile, 11 per­cent of the avail­able land is located In Tuscany.

Interested par­ties may go online and view all avail­able lands, their agro­nomic char­ac­ter­is­tics and see what crops may be grown there. Purchase pro­pos­als may also be made on the web­site. Young farm­ers will be able to pay for the land in peri­odic install­ments for up to 30 years.

Ismea explained that 403 of the 827 lots are on sale for the first time. The oth­ers were put up for sale in pre­vi­ous years and may now be pur­chased with dis­counts of up to 25 and 35 per­cent.

“Like most European Union coun­tries, Italy is expe­ri­enc­ing a gen­er­a­tional turnover prob­lem in the coun­try­side,” Giorgio Venceslai, head of the office for ser­vices to enter­prises in Ismea, told Olive Oil Times.

According to Eurostat data, most Italian farm­ers are close to retire­ment. In Europe, 34 per­cent of farm­ers are near­ing the retire­ment age. Meanwhile, Venceslai said only 11 per­cent of European farm­ers are under 40.

“In many cases, no fam­ily suc­ces­sion is fore­see­able,” Venceslai said. ​“The num­ber of younger farm­ers that enter the agri­cul­tural sec­tor has risen in the last few years, but still appears insuf­fi­cient to replace the older gen­er­a­tions.”

When it comes to olive farms, the lat­est Ismea data show that less than five per­cent of spe­cial­ized olive farms in Italy are man­aged by grow­ers under the age of 40. The fig­ure rises to eight per­cent in the broader agri­cul­tural sec­tor.

According to the aging index used by Ismea, for every young olive farmer in Italy, there are 11 over the age of 65. A large por­tion of the land being sold in the new ini­tia­tive has own­ers who have already retired and are not actively man­ag­ing them.

Looking at the whole Italian agri­cul­ture sec­tor, Ismea said young farm­ers run less than eight per­cent of all farm­ing com­pa­nies.

“One of the most rel­e­vant hur­dles in access­ing this mar­ket is financ­ing land pur­chases,” Venceslai said. ​“Italy is one of the European coun­tries with the high­est pur­chase and rent prices for farm­ing lands.

“Ismea’s Bank of the Land aims to help the younger gen­er­a­tion over­come those hur­dles, allow­ing them to buy the land in install­ments for 100 per­cent of the total value of the lot,” he added. ​“It also aims at gath­er­ing eco­nomic resources which Ismea will use to offer them favor­able con­ces­sions.”

Agricultural asso­ci­a­tions wel­comed the new ini­tia­tive in many Italian regions.

“The avail­abil­ity of suf­fi­cient cap­i­tal is the biggest obsta­cle to launch­ing a farm­ing com­pany, even more for those younger farm­ers who do not have a farm­ing fam­ily his­tory,” said Fabrizio Filippi, pres­i­dent of Coldiretti Tuscany.

“Starting from noth­ing, with­out farm­ing land, makes it even more dif­fi­cult,” he added. ​“With the new Ismea ini­tia­tive, 43 new farms could be estab­lished in our region.”

Coldiretti Puglia said inno­va­tion and the abil­ity to expand are com­mon traits for farms run by younger farm­ers.

According to the asso­ci­a­tion, the total income of those farms is 75 per­cent higher than aver­age, and they also tend to have 50 per­cent more employ­ees. The dimen­sions of their farms are also 54 per­cent larger than aver­age.

Benedetta Liberace, head of Young Coldiretti Enterprise in Puglia, said the new Ismea ini­tia­tive ​“is an oppor­tu­nity” since the price for farm­ing land in the region is ​“on lev­els even higher than those in Germany or France.”

Liberace noted how one hectare of an olive grove in the region is now sold for €20,000 to €25,000.

When the pre­vi­ous edi­tion of the Bank of the Land ini­tia­tive was launched, Filippo Gallinella, pres­i­dent of the agri­cul­tural com­mit­tee of the Chamber of Deputies, said, ​“a new gen­er­a­tion of farm­ers is absolutely needed by Italian agri­cul­ture.”

“We need them to reduce the waste of too many uncul­ti­vated acres scat­tered through­out the coun­try,” he added. ​“We also need them to revi­tal­ize the socio-eco­nomic fab­ric of many rural areas that in few decades risk the depop­u­la­tion.”

In the last few years, the Bank of Land made it pos­si­ble to sell more than 13,000 hectares for 349 projects. This year pur­chase pro­pos­als will be accepted until June 5.

• Ismea
• Puglia Press