PR - MAINSTREAM AND ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF FINANCE IN DUTCH AGRICULTURE

Abstract:
In this paper mainstream and alternative sources of finance in Dutch agriculture are analysed. Dutch farmers make use of different sources of finance whereby bank loans continue to serve as the major source of debt financing. The average bank loan was approximately 740,000 euro per farm in 2015 while equity amounted 1.8 million euro per farm. Traditional family loans amounted about 60,000 euro per farm. Recent developments in, and examples of, alternative sources of finance indicate that the diversity will increase in the future, whereby various forms of financing will be used simultaneously. This can also be of interest for mainstream banks since their funding capacity is becoming more restricted as they are required to retain more capital to comply with the Basel Accords. The prospects for crowdfunding in agriculture are promising for projects relating to sales in niche markets. The relative low return on equity in agriculture indicates that private equity or venture capital is often not a viable option.
Keywords: Finance; credit; debt; agriculture; crowdfunding.