It is year 2012 that would be vital for protection of Lithuania‘s agriculture sector

Agrowill Group, one of the largest agricultural companies in the Baltic states, has agreed with plans of Association of Lithuania‘s Agricultural Companies ( the ALAC) and maintains a position that a vital task of 2012 is to protect Lithuania‘s agriculture positions in terms of the EU future changes on funding of an agricultural sector.
 „2012 would be a vital year for us to achieve that our local farmers would not be the last in terms of the rest EU Member States. According to the prepared changes of funding neither development, nor competitive conditions for our agricultural sector after 2014 could be expected – as our production will be more expensive, we could not stand competition within the European market. It is the reason why we should gain more friendly solutions of the EU for some several areas in 2012“, - Vladas Bagavicius, Agrowill Group chairman of the board puts it.
According to Mr. Bagavicius, one of the most important tasks is to achieve that Lithuania‘ farmers could get subsidies, equal to at least an average amount, other European countries receive, i.e. 898 LTL for 1 hectare of agricultural land ( different to 614 LTL as intended).
Moreover, we want to induce the Commission to reject a top limit on subsidies for larger farms. The mentioned limits would restrict opportunities of Lithuanian farmers to produce cheaper production thus being competent with larger actors of the European market. As it would be not enough, due to less efficient activity of smaller farmers, compared to the largest ones, the former will increase costs of their production, so limitations will reduce possibilities of Lithuanian residents to buy food cheaply.
„It is very important to achieve that possibilities for farmers to renew their farms would remain the same after 2014, too. To be fair, Lithuania’s farmers are noticeably behind European farmers and even the nearest neighboring countries regarding machinery and other parameters. Modernization of agricultural holdings could be funded at least at the same level “, - V.Bagavicius declares.
According to Mr. Bagavicius, decisions on agricultural policy, adopted in Lithuania, are also very important. A good mentioned example could be a tax for land of agricultural purposes. Agrowill Group maintains ALAC position that the mentioned tax should be counted according to productivity of land, i.e. particular possibilities of a farmer to cultivate products on his land. A bad decision is to set a tax upon land market price.
Moreover, the Decision on exemptions of electric power taxes for agricultural companies, adopted by Seimas, would be significant. Continuing policy of frozen taxes for longer time could help farmers to save their profit and develop their activity defensively in some next years.

For more information, please contact:
Vladas Bagavičius, Chairman of the Board of Agrowill Group AB, tel. +3710 610 31807

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