Bruno De Mesnildot, president of the union of private rural owners, puts forward the objectives and demands of his union for the rental of agricultural land.
What is the role of your union?
We bring together around 10,000 owners of agricultural land in France, including 200 in the Manche region. Almost all of these owners rent their land to farmers. The union is there to defend the interests of owners who rent or maintain their land. We are little known and new members tend to contact us only when they have a problem with their tenants. For many, we are owners who have inherited land and we make it prosper by renting it out for agriculture. In Manche, 75% of members own less than 50 ha each. We rent around 7,000 ha of land.
Do you have any fears?
It is estimated that a third of land will change tenants in the next 10 years in France, or 10 million ha. In France, 50% of land is rented to farmers. Who will take over this land when the farmers retire? While knowing that the status of renting is a repellent. We are in a system where administration is too important. Most of our leases are automatically renewable and transferable. I hope that each lease can be renegotiated with each new lessee. Our wish is also to have a right of veto over the future tenant of our land, this is not the case.
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What do you propose ?
First of all, the possibility of reviewing the prices of our land rentals according to the crops grown there, profitable or not. Today, the maximum annual rental is around €228 per ha, imposed by the prefect. New regulations could see new owners arrive. We have the cheapest rental prices in Europe. A dilemma, because it attracts foreign buyers who speculate knowing that it can only increase. In the Channel, the purchase price of one ha is around €6,680, but it is on average double that in Europe. We are asking that donation fees be reduced but also that land tax be exempted for land rented to young farmers. Agricultural property must be made more attractive.
Information, email to propriete-rurale50.com
