The Natuurrijk Limburg cooperative was the largest Dutch recipient of EU agricultural funds in 2019, with €6.5 million from the CAP subsidy. In second place is the growers’ cooperative Nova Fresh with €6.3 million.
The top 50 direct subsidy recipients includes many agricultural institutions as well as decentralized governments such as water boards. In the 2018 list, the Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier headed the list with a combined disbursed amount of €15.7 million.
The list of major recipients of agricultural subsidies was compiled by think tank CEPS in Brussels. It was quite a task: due to fragmentation, the 6 million recipients of EU agricultural funds are listed in almost 300 databases across 27 member states. Many EU countries do not want to make that data public.
In several Eastern European countries, the vast majority of CAP millions go to only a few large companies because they are linked to the size of the agricultural area. Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski believes that more money should be reserved for small (family) farms.
The CEPS overview concerns not only agricultural subsidies but also other economic stimulus measures like the ESF and the cohesion funds. As a result, the final recipients of European subsidies from both the Common Agricultural Policy (2018 and 2019) and the cohesion policy (from 2014 to 2020) are now visible.
In the Netherlands, it is notable that the Fentener van Vlissingen family leads the cohesion funds list with €3.3 million as owner of Trouw Nutrition, reports the trade weekly Binnenlands Bestuur. The Van der Leegte family (of car manufacturer VDL) is second with €1.3 million. Hilde Umdasch receives €1 million.
Regarding agricultural funds, Henda Flowers, a large chrysanthemum grower, receives the most, €600,000 in 2018. In 2019, W. and J. Schutte top the list with €800,000. The Koninklijke maatschap Wilhelminapolder stands second in both 2018 and 2019, with a little over €500,000 each year.
By the way, the Dutch end beneficiaries are modest. In some other EU countries, such as Poland and Germany, there are end beneficiaries with many tens of millions of euros.