Farming in France

nxy

Member
Mixed Farmer
Interested to here peoples experiences as a foreigner with French banks for borrowing to buy farms. If, for arguments sake, I put 250000 euro on deposit in a french bank would they be willing to lend to me for a farm purchase and what size loan would I be able to get? Are young farmers looked upon more favourably in terms of repayment terms?
In my experience the banks are more interested in "is the project viable and will it pay back the sum borrowed" than a figure of x% of the capital. They will lend quite a high percentage if you can show how you will pay it back, especially if you qualify as an official "young farmer". This would involve a professional consultant drawing up a budget and quite a few other hoops being jumped through but it's well worth it for the extra subsidy and help you qualify for.

I doubt if money on deposit would allow you to borrow a lot more as they would say you could withdraw it. The thinking would be "Why not borrow less in the first place?". Never looks bad to have a healthy balance though.
 

mcdonap2

Member
One further question @nxy . The rate for the dpb (entitlement) is 250euros/hectare? Is this correct? As in is it a standard flat rate? Is there any greening or other payment on top of the basic value ( such is the case in ireland). Are there any top ups for young farmers? TIA
 

le bon paysan

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Limousin, France
Interested to here peoples experiences as a foreigner with French banks for borrowing to buy farms. If, for arguments sake, I put 250000 euro on deposit in a french bank would they be willing to lend to me for a farm purchase and what size loan would I be able to get? Are young farmers looked upon more favourably in terms of repayment terms?
At the moment banks are tighter than a ducks arse!! You would probably get a mortgage for the same amount and how you finance the livestock and machinery is a good question. Young farmers have lower interest rate loans but you have to use local groups for weighing animals etc and pay for that privilege so yes you have lower rates but pay for services that an older farmer does not have to. This situation is not just for foreigners but the french as well.
 

nxy

Member
Mixed Farmer
One further question @nxy . The rate for the dpb (entitlement) is 250euros/hectare? Is this correct? As in is it a standard flat rate? Is there any greening or other payment on top of the basic value ( such is the case in ireland). Are there any top ups for young farmers? TIA
DPB is mostly historic so varies from farm to farm. There have been some attempts at levelling up but basically it's still historic and land specific. 250 would be a pretty good DPB for round here.

There are quite a lot of other schemes and more in the pipeline depending on what you are farming. There are headage payments for livestock. LFA payments in poorer farming areas. Area payments for various crops including peas and beans.

Its worth remembering as well that everything changes from 2023 and its likely that the DPB may go down a bit and more money will be switched into green schemes
 
One further question @nxy . The rate for the dpb (entitlement) is 250euros/hectare? Is this correct? As in is it a standard flat rate? Is there any greening or other payment on top of the basic value ( such is the case in ireland). Are there any top ups for young farmers? TIA
is it?No such thing as a flat rate , is there any greening with arable?The orignal dpus were based on your qualifying year no 2 farms the same and no 2 amounts the same they are trying to level things out! but will it ever happen?Too late with my reply!!
 
How much lower for a young farmer?Like most things you have to play the system a bit and if you are first in you will be the one to benefit because they have a habit of moving the goal posts every couple of years
 

nxy

Member
Mixed Farmer
How much lower for a young farmer?Like most things you have to play the system a bit and if you are first in you will be the one to benefit because they have a habit of moving the goal posts every couple of years
From what I heard recently there is not much difference in the rates for young farmers and the rest of us at the moment, though that might change soon as the YF rate is fixed by the state.
 

Farmer_Joe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
The North

Fu3k me theres some serious bargains in there, well they could be loads but compared to english prices!

how easy it it to buy there again???

i got to europe traveling with kids every year would save a ferry trip too if i lived there!!

Im all seriousness what's the lay of the land now, i cant believe how reasonable some properties seem, i would hopefully not need to borrow just cash purchase.

I have an irish brother-in-law if that helps!
 
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will l

Member
Arable Farmer
Fu3k me theres some serious bargains in there, well they could be loads but compared to english prices!

how easy it it to buy there again???

i got to europe traveling with kids every year would save a ferry trip too if i lived there!!

Im all seriousness what's the lay of the land now, i cant believe how reasonable some properties seem, i would hopefully not need to borrow just cash purchase.

I have an irish brother-in-law if that helps!
actually some of them are seriously overpriced
 

Farmer_Joe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
The North
Been reading up on this, assuming you have a visa which looks attainable if you are farming and have cash to support your self can you just buy a farm and crack on? Would anyone be hospitable enough to to let me visit if I was over ( would be staying at mrs parents) but would be great to met someone who’s done it
 

czechmate

Member
Mixed Farmer
Been reading up on this, assuming you have a visa which looks attainable if you are farming and have cash to support your self can you just buy a farm and crack on? Would anyone be hospitable enough to to let me visit if I was over ( would be staying at mrs parents) but would be great to met someone who’s done it

I am sure if you have money behind you, moving here is not a problem, just more complicated than before🙄. Yea you can certainly visit us👍
 
Been reading up on this, assuming you have a visa which looks attainable if you are farming and have cash to support your self can you just buy a farm and crack on? Would anyone be hospitable enough to to let me visit if I was over ( would be staying at mrs parents) but would be great to met someone who’s done it
Yes sure, pm if you get that far and we can arrange something.
 
Been reading up on this, assuming you have a visa which looks attainable if you are farming and have cash to support your self can you just buy a farm and crack on? Would anyone be hospitable enough to to let me visit if I was over ( would be staying at mrs parents) but would be great to met someone who’s done it
Come see us too if you want. We're in the young farmers schemes etc.
 

Farmer_Joe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
The North
Real North Yorkshire? theres a few you wont understand over here as well as the french!!!!!!!!!
Where does her in doors parents live?
Apologies for brief answer earlier was out and about,

Ha ha im not that 'north', my accent is fairly subtle!

Her parents holiday around 6 months of the year in France they own a van on a site near ish Bordeaux,

i thought i could stay here, or to be fair combine a family holiday and pop in a see a few of you, (we usually got to France Germany and the surrounding countries)

i think i could make it work without burning all my bridges back to the uk with some borrowing i could hold my farm land and an un converted barn upon it so could return if so required.

I have a list of questions i will dm a few of you if you kind enough to answer, see what i think of it all then! (kids if you have em, ages schools what you farm etc)

May thanks to everyone for your help.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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    Votes: 75 43.4%
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    Votes: 62 35.8%
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    Votes: 27 15.6%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 3 1.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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