In 2020, more than half (59%) of agricultural companies in the Netherlands run by over 55s had no successor. This is especially true for (very) small farms. The larger the business, the greater the chance it had a successor. The Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reported. Their report is based on the 2020 Agricultural Census' provisional figures.
Last year, there were more than 52,000 agricultural companies. People over 55 manage more than 27,000 of them. Of these, about 11,000 have successors, leaving 16,000 without one.
In the floriculture and glasshouse vegetable farming sectors, noticeably few young people are interested in taking over (mostly) their parents' businesses. In the flower bulb sector, 37% of the older business managers have a successor lined up.
In both the cut flowers and the pot and bedding plants sectors, this was only 22%. In the tree nursery sector, it was 21%. And only 20% of greenhouse vegetable farmers have successors.
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