Approximately 1% of agricultural owners hold 13% of arable land in Quebec, shows an unprecedented compilation produced by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Quebec (MAPAQ). These 350 large landowners together own an area more than eight times larger than that of the island of Montreal.
The growing concentration of land in the hands of a limited number of large owners worries the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) to the point that it is asking Quebec to limit the surface area that any person or entity can acquire per year for commercial purposes. agricultural.
“It’s certain that it has an impact on the agricultural model that we have here, which is a family farming model,” underlines Martin Caron, president of the UPA, the union which represents all farmers. of the province. The social choice that was made in Quebec, he notes, “is to have businesses with a human and family dimension compared to other countries where it is much more industrialized.”
In 2023, the 350 largest owners of agricultural land in Quebec owned 404,000 of the 3.1 million hectares of agricultural land registered with MAPAQ, or 13%. In 2007, this proportion was 9%.
For comparison, the island of Montreal has an area of approximately 48,000 hectares.
These areas are mainly owned by farmers (321,000 hectares).
In 2023, 32,870 agricultural land owners were listed in the province.
These figures are taken from a report recently published as part of the national consultation aimed at modernizing the Law on the protection of land and agricultural activitiesadopted 45 years ago.
“It is an interesting indicator of the concentration of land ownership in Quebec. This concentration is, on the one hand, somewhat logical insofar as we know that there are farms which are committed to growing their business and which are constantly seeking to expand, but it also questions the capacity of the law on the protection of agricultural land to ensure that everyone has access to land, and not just the largest owners”, estimates Patrick Mundler, professor in the department of agroeconomics and consumer sciences at the ‘Laval University.
Bigger and bigger
The 20 agricultural companies with the most land in Quebec together owned 113,600 hectares in 2023, compared to 47,100 hectares in 2007, shows a second compilation carried out by MAPAQ for The Press.
INFOGRAPHICS THE PRESS
The average area owned by each owner in this group has also more than doubled, from 2,400 hectares in 2007 to 5,700 hectares in 2023.
In its compilations, MAPAQ does not name the largest owners of agricultural land.
In 2023, the largest owner of agricultural land in Quebec owned 12,200 hectares while the largest owner in 2007 owned 6,000.
“Such a concentration is not without consequences since it reduces accessibility to land for the next generation of farmers,” says Carole-Anne Lapierre, spokesperson for the SaluTERRE Alliance, a coalition which aims to protect agricultural land in Quebec.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The spokesperson for the SaluTERRE Alliance, Carole-Anne Lapierre
“Moreover, concentration is linked to increased specialization of activities on a farm then aiming for export markets, a phenomenon which tends to detach agricultural businesses from their links with local communities and reduces their contribution to the economic vitality of the regions », she adds.
“Alarming” trend
In Quebec, the value of agricultural land has tripled over the past 10 years, show data collected by the Financière agricole du Québec.
In the brief it has just submitted to the national consultation on agricultural land, the UPA asks Quebec to set up a detailed register recording ownership and transactions relating to agricultural land in Quebec.
To put a stop to the “alarming” trend towards the increasing concentration of land, the union is also asking to limit the area that can be purchased annually for agricultural purposes other than intergenerational transfer.
“Large agricultural landowners are likely to attract the attention of agricultural investors such as investment funds. Indeed, the capitalization of these large owners is such that in the event of a sale of their companies (or their assets), only investors with substantial financial resources will be able to acquire them,” we can read in the brief. of the UPA, that The Press obtained.
“In addition, for investors seeking to diversify their asset portfolio by integrating agricultural land, the acquisition of the shares or assets of these large agricultural landowners represents a turnkey solution, much simpler and faster than the purchase of individual agricultural plots,” warns the union.
What is protected agricultural territory?
Adopted in 1978, the Law on the protection of land and agricultural activities aimed to curb urban sprawl and protect good agricultural land from real estate speculation. It has thus demarcated “green zones” where it is prohibited to build businesses or residences except those of farmers who exploit the land. The “green” surface area of Quebec is estimated at some 6.3 million hectares. This represents approximately 5% of the territory of the province, even if, in fact, excluding woodlands, forests, wastelands and wetlands, it is rather approximately 2% of the territory which would be exploitable for agricultural purposes. The proportion of land zoned agricultural that is actually under cultivation is in free fall. Between 2006 and 2021, 63,000 hectares fell fallow in Quebec.