Bristen på arrendemark som hinder för expansion av lantbruksföretag : arrendelagstiftningens och gårdsstödets påverkan på den svenska arrendemarknaden

Abstract: Improved profitability, a reasonable yearly income or the possibility to have employees are all incentives for expansion. A prerequisite for farm businesses to expand is for land to be made available, either to buy or to rent. In Sweden, 43 % of the total arable land is leasehold land, which implies that a functioning leasehold market is of great importance for the Swedish agriculture. Several factors can affect the supply of leasehold land, for instance the leasehold legislation and the Single Payment Scheme. The fact that the leasehold legislation is compulsory, in protection of the leaseholder, might keep land owners from leasing their land out. The decoupled farm payments encourage passive farming and reduce the amount of available land on the leasehold market. The essay aims to investigate if the leasehold legislation and the Single Payment Scheme limit the supply of leasehold land, keeping Swedish farm businesses from expanding, and how a reform of them both would enhance the situation. To gain both general and more deepened information on the subject, learnings from existing litterature is combined with empirical research. The empirical study contains of seven interviews with key figures in the agricultural business, including both government representatives, private partners and people representing the land owners and leaseholders respectively. The results show that the Single Payment Scheme is the most important factor explaining the lack of leasehold land, but that its importance varies in different regions. Introducing active farming as a requirement for getting financial support would enhance the supply of leasehold land in poorer agricultural districts. The leasehold legislation doesn’t influence the total supply of leasehold land, but still affects the leasehold market in other ways. Basically the legislation is well-functioning, but it might still be a good idea to review some parts of it since it has been accused of being anachronic. However, the biggest problem is considered to be the poor knowledge of how the legislation actually works.