On July 1 of that year, the Latvian Land Fund will begin work

The State-established Latvian Land Fund will commence operation on 1 July of that year and it aims to promote the preservation of agricultural land used in Latvia and the sustainable utilisation of these areas for agricultural production purposes.
The creation of a land fund is one of the national instruments to promote the preservation and use of agricultural land in Latvia for agricultural purposes not less than 2 million hectares, involving approximately 0.4 million hectares of non-agricultural land in active agricultural production.
For the commencement and operating principles of the Land Fund, the REPRESENTATIVES of the Development Finance Institutions OF the Land Fund manager ALTUM and the Ministry of Agriculture have been informed at the press conference today.
Kristine Cinkus, head of the Land Management and Refugee Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, explained that the establishment of the Latvian Land Fund is a national offer to promote more balanced regional development and efficient use of natural resources. It is part of a common concept in which a wide range of instruments are available, such as the setting of specific conditions for the purchase of agricultural land, the agricultural land crediting programme, the exemption of residents from income tax in the event they sell their land to a producing farmer, the application of increased real estate tax on non-cultivated agricultural land and a number of other measures supporting the Agriculture sector.
The operation of the Land Fund shall be governed by the Law on Land Privatisation in Rural Areas and Cabinet regulations regarding the procedures by which the Land Fund performs transactions with agricultural land. The land fund of Latvia consists of stocked agricultural land which is further leased, sold or changed. The main lines of activity of the land fund are the purchase of agricultural land, the lease of agricultural land and the sale or change of land, the ALTUM Board member Jacob Kriemanis informed.
Mr Alksne, head of the Land Fund, informed that the fund would buy properties from current owners who could no longer or would not, for any other reason, wish to continue their agricultural land in agricultural activity, and who would express their willingness to sell the property to the land fund themselves. The land fund will seek the acquirer or manager of the purchased property. Unleased and unsold properties will be bought in management services – including cutting, shrubs with the objective of maintaining agricultural land in good order, cleaning agricultural land and returning to agricultural circulation.
The land fund will purchase immovable properties throughout the territory of Latvia, which will meet certain criteria – it is possible to recover or preserve it for agricultural production purposes; the agricultural land is more than 50% of the total area of the property; the immovable property is registered in the Land Register; the property shall be a non-residential road in good condition of the State, local government or local significance with the carriageway; the property does not have restrictions on economic activity; buildings and structures not registered in the Land Register, the cadastre value of which exceeds 30% of the property land cadastre value, or belonging to another owner, or cultural monuments; the immovable property is not in the dispute or which is otherwise encumbered by the property of the property; the immovable property is not in the dispute, or the cultural monuments are otherwise encumbered; all immovable property shall be sold.
The land fund will buy properties at prices that do not exceed the average prices on the market for equivalent agricultural land in the relevant municipality and parish. In order to sell land to the Latvian Land Fund, the owner will have to submit an application electronically using the application forms www.altum.lv/zemesfonds.
The land fund manager will assess all the applications for sale of the property received up to 30 working days, another 10 working days are intended to agree on the conditions of the transaction and 10 days for the conclusion of the agreement. The Commission fee for the transaction will not be charged, but the customer should be charged with the State's costs in dealing with real estate.
Information on land available for sale and the application questionnaire will also be available on the website www.altum.lv/zemesfonds. If several potential purchasers apply, the preference for the purchase of land will be given in the following order: the last lessee, the landlord, the new farmer, and in other cases an auction between potential purchasers will be organised, the Alksne informed.
Without competing with private market participants, the land fund will close economically justified transactions with both natural and legal persons. The sale of land to the land fund to agricultural land may be carried out by any land owner, while natural and legal persons will be purchased if they comply with the criteria defined in the Law on land privatisation in rural areas, namely the main criterion is the activity of the purchaser with agricultural production.
Both natural and legal persons will be able to lease the property from the land fund. The rental prices will be consistent with the average market prices of the leasing market for agricultural land in the notion and parish of the relevant transaction. The properties available to the lease will be available on the website www.altum.lv/zemesfonds. There are also possible land swaps. Owner of the agricultural land by filling in the application form for the exchange transaction www.altum.lv/zemesfonds it will be possible to offer an agricultural land belonging to himself or herself against any of the properties offered for sale or change of the land fund, if the owner is more geographically advantageous than the existing property. The Land Fund will assess the property offered for change in the same way as acquisition transactions, determining their compliance with the purpose of the land fund, assessing efficiency, efficiency and comparing the prices of both properties.
According to the study carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, the area of agricultural land used in Latvia is approximately 2.3 million hectares, from which 1.56 million hectares are treated. More than 700 thousand hectares of agricultural land are uncultivated. It is concluded that around half of this uncultivated agricultural area could be returned to agriculture under favourable economic conditions. The creation of a land fund is one of the national instruments to promote the preservation and use of agricultural land in Latvia for agricultural purposes not less than 2 million hectares, with an active agricultural production involving approximately 0.4 million hectares of non-utilised agricultural land.
Other information:
Christine Grauzina 
ALTUM Marketing Part Manager
Tel. 67774161, 29488915
kristine.grauzina@altum.lv