‘Farmers more often leave abroad due to the situation in the Netherlands’
Dutch farmers are completely stuck, partly due to government policy, and it is becoming “more difficult and more difficult” for novice farmers to make ends meet. To travel abroad more often. This is the conclusion of Roel Jongeneel, professor of agricultural and food policy at Wageningen University. In order to continue investing, upscaling is often necessary, open livestock farming in The Hague wants farmers because of the nitrogen crisis.
“As a young farmer you are 1-0 behind”, Jongeneel says in Stand van Nederland: Generation Next. “The prices of milk and meat continue to fall, the costs for the farmer change, for example due to the high energy costs. In the Netherlands it is even worse because of the environmental measures.”
To reduce and increase costs, Jongeneel says. And that is easier abroad, for example in Denmark, where a piece is out. “This makes your company future-proof, even with more environmental measures.” This is difficult in the Netherlands, partly because of the nitrogen policy, explains the professor.
Netherlands emigration country
Dairy farmer Olof Schonewille knows all about this: the Dutchman now farms in Denmark. The production costs of a carton of milk are naturally higher there: 54 cents against 41 cents in the Netherlands, but milk also yields more: 56 cents per liter in Denmark against 48 cents per liter in the Netherlands.
Danish farmers also receive more subsidies, but because Danish dairy farms are almost always larger than Dutch ones, farmers like Olof can run their businesses better than in the Netherlands. “Business-wise, everything is fine here,” says Olof. “Socially it is different. You no longer even go to a restaurant with your group of friends on Saturdays.”
The situation of the farmers means that the Netherlands is gradually becoming a country of emigration for farmers. Within Europe, Dutch farmers mainly move to France, Germany and Denmark. Olof thinks it’s great that his Dutch colleagues “can earn a living despite the continuously changing laws and regulations. In the Netherlands you have to invest every year in something that only increases the cost price.”
‘Farmers are stuck’
Another way than expanding to make a farm in the Netherlands future-proof is to start farming organically, says Jongeneel. “But that is a completely different way of producing and a niche market. So the classic way is scaling up. That requires intensification and we are now restricting that in the Netherlands. The farmers are stuck, really stuck.”
In addition, as a Dutch farmer you do not become rich. Dairy farmers earn an average of 53,000 euros annually from their farms, where they have to work fifty hours a week. If farmers worked 36 hours a week, the pay would be 35,000 euros a year; just an average salary.
Future not rosy
And although the climate crisis is now casting a shadow over farming, the crisis is also playing in the background. Jongeneel: “In Europe we have agreed that we must become climate neutral and lead the way in the world. But consider making a cow that emits methane climate neutral. That will also cause a lot of problems.”
The conclusion is that the future is not bright for farmers, thinks Jongeneel. “The task is so great that even with very successful innovation a shrinkage of the livestock is probably inevitable. There is a future, but it is getting harder and harder.”
In this episode of Stand van Nederland: Generation Next research millennial Jill Bleiksloot how the future perspective of the Dutch farmer is. Watch NPO 2 on Thursday at 9 p.m. Watch this episode of previous broadcasts here back.
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Door: Peter Visser