Access to finance for EU young farmers: Survey evidence 2022 – 2025

This report offers a concise, data‑driven overview of how young farmers across the EU‑24 access and use finance, drawing on two major fi‑compass surveys carried out between 2022 and 2025. It analyses investment needs, funding sources, lending outcomes, and barriers to green and resilience‑focused investments, revealing structural patterns and emerging trends, comparing young farmers with older farmers and highlighting differences across the cereal, vegetable, and dairy sectors. https://www.fi-compass.eu/ sites/default/files/ publications/EAFRD_YF_Survey_2022_2025_MarketAnalysis_RTW_0.pdf

Offering a coherent picture of young farmers’ access to finance and investment patterns in the EU-24 agricultural sector, the report cites key indicators, such as loan approval rates, financing uptake, and self-reported barriers show modest improvement from 2022 to 2024. However, closer examination reveals persistent structural weaknesses that warrant continued and targeted attention. Formal lending access has improved, but structural constraints remain. The decline in self-exclusion from formal lending and the reduction in discouraged borrowing between 2022 and 2024 are positive. However, the parallel increase in partial approvals, the modest rise in rejection rates, and the substantial cost related barriers for green financing indicate that structural barriers facing young farmers continue to constrain their investment capacity. The diversification of financing sources reflects adaptation to constraint rather than a freely chosen strategy. The marked increase between 2022 and 2024 in the use of private financing sources, leasing, and credit lines should not be interpreted solely as evidence of a maturing financial culture for young farmers. A significant component of this shift reflects constrained access to conventional bank lending under tighter macroeconomic and credit conditions, leading young farmers to rely more heavily on informal and off-balance-sheet instruments as substitutes for term lending that is either unavailable or unaffordable. The primary constraint on young farmers’ access to loans is demand suppression before the application stage rather than during the approval process. Where young farmers do apply for bank loans, approval rates are generally high, particularly in the vegetable and dairy sectors, and farmer-side refusal of offers is negligible. The more significant structural challenge is upstreamas many young farmers do not engage with formal credit markets at all. They cite macroeconomic uncertainty, unfavourable financing costs and, for many, self-exclusion driven by fear of rejection. Not applying for bank finance due to the fear of rejection and perceived cost, complexity and risk together are more important than lender rejection across most sub-sectors and financing categories. As a result, generational renewal in European agriculture depends not only on improving the supply of credit but also on reducing barriers that discourage farmers from applying in the first place.

SUSTAINAGRO

Sustainability in Rural Enterprises and Innovation

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