Omrop Fryslân Farmer Bartele Holtrop wants to get out of the ‘rat race’
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 12:40
Bartele Holtrop from the Frisian village of Rotstergaast is perhaps the first farmer in the Netherlands to do it: instead of applying for a new loan from the bank, he sells bonds.
Holtrop wants to get rid of ‘the system’, he adds Omrop Fryslân. “The money is in intensive livestock farming, because a bank wants to see a return. The more cows, the more money can be earned. A bank finances a new stable. You have to expand it to earn money again. And so on. Holtrop said. “I want to get out of that pattern.”
The organic farmer does this in a special way. Holtrop has divided his country into a thousand pieces. Anyone can invest in such a piece of land with a bond of 1000 euros. Seventy bonds have now been sold. Ultimately, the farmer hopes to sell a thousand.
Get out of the rat race
“With such a bond you are a kind of co-owner. You get a return on that and we pay off the loan at the bank,” says Holtrop. “With that, we hope rat race to step away from always more milk, cows and tractors.”
Investors do not become owners of land. So they don’t get to say anything about the farm or policy. Still, there is a lot to be gained, Holtrop explains. “They get more interest than they get from the bank now.”
Meat, butter and eggs
The investment period is between ten and thirty years. “You get interest back or you can get it in the form of food,” said the farmer. “Meat, butter or eggs for money: really it’s just back to basics. I cut out the middlemen.”
Selling bonds in the agricultural world is new, but companies and institutions have been doing it for much longer. This way they keep things in their own hands. Not unimportant, says Holtrop. He points out that the bank has already raised interest rates for loans three times in a short period of time. Then the sale of bonds is more pleasant, he argues. “This way we can continue working in a sustainable way.”
Risks or safety
Of course, anything can go wrong. This way his company can go bankrupt, Holtrop acknowledges. But the land retains its value and can be used again as farmland, perhaps with the same bondholders.
And if he doesn’t sell enough bonds to continue? “Then I will still go to the bank for a new loan,” says Holtrop, somewhat like a farmer with a toothache.
2023-08-12 10:40:50
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