Cooperative banks are structurally well placed to finance young and new farmers in Europe. Their local presence, member-owned structure, and relationship-based banking model give them a unique advantage in understanding and serving rural communities. Across EU Member States, cooperative banks are consistently among the main lenders to farms and rural small and medium-sized enterprises. Their deep local roots, relationship-based lending, and close ties with producer cooperatives, advisory services, and local value chains enable them to provide tailored financial solutions that reflect the realities of rural economies. This proximity and embeddedness make cooperative banks indispensable partners in sustaining agricultural activity and supporting the generational renewal of Europe’s farming sector.
However, their capacity to scale up agricultural and generational-renewal lending remains can be constrained by capital requirements, prudential treatment, and limited access to guarantee mechanisms.
In the attached paper, we formulate policy-related suggestions that would support cooperative banks in their central role, enabling new entrants to flourish, sustaining rural economies, accelerating agri-tech adoption, and ultimately ensuring that European agriculture remains vibrant, productive, and resilient for future generations.