Background information

Drought and heavy rainfalls have negatively affected the quality and quantity of agricultural production in Sweden this summer. The Swedish Agricultural Department [ Jordbruksverket ] has been given the responsibility, from the Swedish Government, to recommend a scheme of economic aid for agricultural companies affected by this summer’s extreme weather.

This aid will be administrated by the Agricultural Department.

Content of measure

According to the Agricultural Department, the aid should be given primarily to young farmers (under the age of 40), as they often lack monetary resources or access to credit. By doing this, this program has the benefit of securing the future development of agriculture in Sweden, as it potentially hinders the foreclosure of farms driver by young farmers. Furthermore, this limits the administrative scope of such a scheme, which lowers costs of the program.

The administrative cost of this will be around SEK 1 million (€83,800 as of 6 September 2023), and, assuming a 30% reduction in production over the 180,000/ha that are own by young farmers in Sweden, the actual scheme will cost around SEK 540 million (€45.44 million as of 6 September 2023).

The support was paid out in lump sums in December of 2023. The support paid out SEK 234,39 (€20,97) per hectare of spring-sown cereal and oilseed crops, and SEK 79,72 (€7,13) per head of cattle.

Use of measure

The scheme will cover approximately 180,000/ha of farmland, although the actual number of applicants are yet to be known.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

No social partners' involvement.

Views and reactions

No social partners' reaction yet.

Sectors and occupations

Sources

• 03 August 2023: Ekonomiskt stöd till jordbruks­företag på grund av extremväder (jordbruksverket.se)
• 22 February 2024: Krisstöd till jordbruksföretag 2023 (jordbruksverket.se)