Agrion: Secret bidding for land for rent

Agrion is a leading Bulgarian company specializing in the professional management of agricultural assets – leasing, rent, exchange, purchase of agricultural holdings and businesses. The competition for attractive plots for management in the next agricultural year 2016/2017 has begun and Agrion will be a key player, because for the first time it will offer on the Bulgarian market a new method for leasing land, namely through sealed-bid auctions.

One of the major problems with arable agricultural land is that it is fragmented. This leads to low prices per plot. A very large share of the fields are being purchased by farmers, particularly active under projects of the Rural Development Programme, and converted into orchards with fast-profitable crops. Naturally, the most valuable remain the consolidated plots, but for them the cards have long been dealt. The agricultural business is risky, with growth potential and with conflicting interests, because it is unfair.

Agrion, which is a leading company in the management of agricultural assets, offers for the agricultural year 2016/2017 to lease land through sealed-bid auctions. The company states that instead of entering into negotiations for every decare, it provides an opportunity for new tenants to enter the market or to expand their holdings in different land areas, under fair and transparent conditions. Agrion will seek several bids simultaneously in order to guarantee the principle of competition and to clearly indicate what individual farmers can afford to allocate as rental payment. In principle, rental levels are determined by the output produced, the purchase prices, as well as by the size of the plot, the quality of the land and the location.

Documents and bids for the plots are already being accepted at Agrion’s offices throughout the country, with the final date for their submission being 28 April.