Trend research: farmer wants to invest despite concern about future

A large majority of farmers and gardeners plan to invest in their businesses this year; a sign that they want to move forward, specialists say. At the same time, many farmers and market gardeners are worried about the future of their businesses. This is mainly due to disappointing revenues and ever-increasing costs.

Of all respondents, 62.2 percent said they wanted to invest in their business this year. A new barn, shed or yard paving are at the top of the list of investment goals, followed by energy generation and mechanization. Other investment goals mentioned relatively often are barn equipment/milking robot, scaling up/expansion and land purchase for extensification.

Marijn Dekkers, sector specialist for dairy farming at Rabobank, believes that the high propensity to invest is "in line with the entrepreneurship of the sector. In general, entrepreneurs want to move forward. They want to keep their business up to date and make it more sustainable. It is good that there is ambition to invest. That means they have an appetite for the future. I think that's nice to see.'

'Quite a lot'

Steven van Westreenen, business consultant at the firm that bears his name, sees in the figures what he hears in conversations with his clients. 'That over 62 percent want to invest is quite a lot. But on the other hand, investments in stables, barns, pavement or mechanization do not have to mean the heaviest investments. It will often be a matter of replacing depreciated equipment. And the development of technology continues.'

Anything is different when it comes to investments in land, according to Van Westreenen. That's difficult at the moment. People remain sitting on their land. There is a transition to come. There is interest in land for housing and project developers are also buying land. There is a hunger for land.'

Energy generation

Energy generation is the most mentioned investment goal after the yard and buildings. Van Westreenen also finds this development recognizable. 'In addition to solar energy, the demand for small wind turbines is booming. There are municipalities, such as Ede, that have adjusted the zoning plan to make this possible,' he says.

View the full trend study at newharvest.