Reducing the administrative burden

Amendments to Latvia's CAP Strategic Plan have been submitted and approved, simplifying the award of support payments to farmers. For example:

• when applying for eco-scheme support, which requires information to be submitted on liming and on the use of fertilisers and plant protection products, the requirement to use the UAA management system has been abolished;
• the requirement to submit geo-tagged photographs has been abolished, thereby making it possible to envisage and submit alternative forms of evidence that the eligibility conditions have been met;
• in applying the good agricultural and environmental condition standard on crop rotation, provision has been made for maize to be grown for more than 3 years in succession if an undersown grass crop or catch crops are sown in the field;
• in the eco-scheme providing support for the use of precision fertiliser and plant protection product technologies, the requirements relating to the recording and reporting of fertiliser and plant protection product planning and use have been abolished.

To cut red tape, the requirement for farmers to enter various data repeatedly was simplified in 2024. The requirement to use the UAA Management System for recording information has therefore been abolished, and farmers may choose to keep their records in an electronic system or file of their own choosing.

Amendments have been made to legislation at both EU and national level to reduce the administrative burden:

• farmers may keep their records in an electronic system of their own choosing; the State Plant Protection Service (VAAD) UAA management system is no longer mandatory;
• the number of times information must be submitted has been reduced from four to one;
• the burden relating to the submission of geo-tagged photographs has been substantially reduced;
• amendments to EU rules have been secured and approved that allow Member States to use various alternatives for calculating the permanent grassland ratio in the current year, thus providing a further solution to the permanent grassland problem in Latvia;
• as of 2025, GAEC standard 8.1, which required 4% of arable land to be set aside for non-productive areas and landscape features, has been abolished. Instead, Member States are obliged to introduce an eco-scheme for the share of arable land set aside for non-productive areas and landscape features (i.e. it remains up to farmers whether to apply for such support).

On 10.09.2024 the government adopted an order drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture on winding up the Agricultural Data Centre (LDC), delegating the performance of the LDC's former functions to the Rural Support Service (LAD) from 1 January 2025. The decision was taken in order to create a single system, introducing simplified and flexible supervision of the agricultural sector while reducing the fragmentation and overlap of public administration functions.

On 1 January 2024 an amended requirement in the Cabinet of Ministers regulations on commercial fishing in inland waters entered into force, providing that inland-water fishers must also record their catches in the state information system "Latvian Fisheries Integrated Control and Information System" (LZIKIS). This requirement does away with the need for paper fishing logbooks and speeds up the flow of information.

The administrative burden in forest management has been reduced – amendments have been made to Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 310 of 02.05.2012, "Occupational safety requirements in forestry", concerning occupational safety requirements in the sector.

Amendments have been made to Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 421 of 22.07.2014, "Hunting Regulations", developing e-services and easing the administrative burden by introducing digital information exchange in the field of hunting.

With the expanded functionality of the "Mednis" mobile app, hunters can promptly submit information about the game animals they have shot. This has made it possible to reduce the administrative burden and simplify dealings with the authority.

In 2024 the State Forest Service (VMD) set improving operational efficiency as a priority task, making optimal use of financial and staff resources, and as a result structural changes have been implemented within the authority. The VMD has established five regional forest districts in place of ten, along with 26 forest districts, whose task is to ensure that the functions and tasks delegated to the service are carried out in the regions, including the provision of public administration services to clients.

On 12.01.2024 amendments to the State Forest Service Law entered into force, providing that a private individual may submit an application to initiate administrative proceedings at the service in structured data form online in the State Forest Register (MVR). The application is legally valid even if it does not bear a "signature" field. It is also stipulated that a private individual may, using an online service set up in the MVR, authorise another person to submit an application in structured data form in the MVR and to receive administrative acts in administrative proceedings. The amendments will substantially reduce the administrative burden on VMD clients when obtaining services.

For small and medium-sized poultry egg and meat food businesses that rear and keep poultry to produce food on a small scale and supply it directly to end consumers, the requirement to carry out mandatory laboratory testing for mycoplasmosis, fowl typhoid, pullorum disease and the salmonellosis agents Salmonella Infantis, Salmonella Hadar and Salmonella Virchow has been reduced, and the frequency of tuberculin testing in poultry has also been reduced.

For equine animals, the requirement to carry out mandatory laboratory testing for equine infectious anaemia as part of disease surveillance has been abolished.

The requirement for holders of veterinary medicine marketing authorisations to submit a mock-up of the veterinary medicine label to the Food and Veterinary Service (PVD) for approval has been abolished.

In order to reduce the administrative burden on food production businesses and encourage the efficient use of PVD human resources, the frequency of planned inspections has been reduced from 1 January 2024 in several groups of food production businesses – businesses producing products of animal origin, beverage producers, and producers operating in domestic premises.

It is important that farmers and food producers spend less time preparing reports and undergoing inspections, so the Ministry of Agriculture's institutions are reducing the number of inspections carried out by combining them into a single inspection, in which one visit covers areas falling within the remit of different Ministry of Agriculture institutions. Wherever possible, inspections will be carried out remotely, using statistical data and remote sensing methods.

New e-services/digital solutions have been introduced (registration of plant variety licence agreements, obtaining plant passports) that make applying for services easier and faster. Advisory support is provided to service users in applying for and using digital services. The number of clients making use of digital options is growing.

Data exchange and integration within the Ministry of Agriculture's portfolio and between other institutions has been improved, as has integration with private record-keeping systems. For example, cooperation between the LAD and the VAAD has reduced the volume of reports that must be submitted; organic farmers, for instance, no longer have to submit reports on the seed material they have produced. Meanwhile, by submitting field activity records electronically for fields entered for direct payments and agri-environment support, farmers no longer have to provide additional information to the Central Statistical Bureau, for example on the quantity of plant protection products used on the holding.

Clients no longer have to submit reports or project information to the LAD manually, because the LAD automatically obtains the necessary data from state and other institutions' databases. This not only makes clients' work easier but also speeds up the processing of information and reduces the scope for errors.

The LAD now retrieves data on farmers from other institutions' systems (rather than asking clients to submit it again), the requirement to use the UAA management system has been abolished, some of the photographic material demonstrating how farming is being carried out no longer has to be sent to the LAD but simply kept by the client, and other provisions have been introduced to reduce the volume of documents to be submitted.

Agriculture

In 2024, EUR 528.5 million was paid out from EU funds for the development of Latvian agriculture.

Additional state support for agriculture in 2024 amounted to EUR 67.6 million.

Latvia is one of the leading countries to have secured the European Commission's (EC) withdrawal of its new legislative proposal on the use of plant protection products (PPPs), which envisaged significant reductions in PPP use (without providing alternatives for continued cultivation).

The personal income tax relief for the agricultural sector will be retained beyond 31 December 2024; it provides that, until 31 December 2029, sums received as state support for agriculture or EU support for agriculture and rural development will not be included in income subject to personal income tax.

Since the end of 2023 the funding available for the working capital loan programme has been increased several times, by a total of EUR 10 million, bringing the programme's total funding to EUR 42 million and enabling loans to be issued at a particularly low interest rate starting from 3.5%.

As in previous years, in 2024 it was again possible to pay out a larger advance on the basic income support for sustainability (BISS) and the organic farming payment (BLA), which the LAD began paying out on 16 October.

In Brussels the Ministry of Agriculture secured the possibility of providing greater state support to productive farms. On 10 December, taking into account what the Ministry of Agriculture and other Member States had called for, the EC adopted amendments to the agricultural de minimis regulation, raising the individual amount of state support granted to farmers over a three-year period from EUR 25,000 to EUR 50,000, while the maximum total amount of state support that Latvia may grant over three years under the regulation has been increased from EUR 20.2 million to EUR 38.45 million.

In 2024, funding for farmers' insurance amounted to EUR 15.7 million, 31% more than in 2023 (EUR 10.8 million).

The uses of the Machinery and Equipment Catalogue have been expanded: clients can now also find second-hand machinery available for purchase in the catalogue.

Amendments to the EU Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan have been proposed to review the support rates for organic farms, in order to encourage farmers to adopt environmentally friendly farming and organic production; support rates for improving and maintaining the resilience and ecological value of forest ecosystems have also been reviewed.

To inform farmers about the main changes to direct payments in 2024 and 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture organised 11 regional seminars in rural areas of Latvia in the autumn of 2024.

Food

To improve food shoppers' awareness of the country of origin of the products they buy, on 13.08.2024 the government adopted regulations drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture setting out how an indication of the country in which a food product was produced must be displayed at food retail outlets. The aim of such indications is to increase consumer awareness, allowing consumers to make decisions based on their personal values and priorities. The origin of food products is particularly important in the current geopolitical situation, in which a large part of Latvian society does not wish to support aggressor states by buying products made there, or wishes to support some other country, for example by choosing products made in Latvia. Depending on the retailer's choice, information about the country of production will have to be given on the product price label, next to the product or product group, or at the point of sale if all the products there were produced in a single country. The country in which a food product was produced may be indicated in writing with the country's name or with an image of its flag. So as not to give prominence to aggressor-state products made in Russia or Belarus, the country is to be indicated in writing only.

The reduced VAT rate of 12% on fresh fruit, berries and vegetables has been retained.

On the Ministry of Agriculture's initiative, work continues on improving the school catering system in Latvia, in order to change eating habits at school and ensure that pupils can receive a balanced, tasty and healthy meal every day, prepared primarily from local produce. A draft informative report, "On improving the school catering system in Latvia", has been prepared and submitted for inter-institutional agreement.

The EU support programme for the supply of fruit, vegetables and milk to educational establishments, implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, has become very popular with children and young people over a number of years. In the 2023/2024 school year, 1,364 educational establishments took part in the support programme, of which 1,348 distributed fruit and vegetables and 1,258 distributed milk. At these establishments, 270,633 pupils (96% of the target group) received free fruit and vegetables – 703 tonnes – while 261,854 pupils (93% of the target group) received milk – 1,791 tonnes. The programme is being successfully continued in the 2024/2025 school year, maintaining the high participation rates among children and young people and educational establishments.

Funding for export promotion through food producers' participation in international trade fairs was increased by 32% in 2024 compared with the previous year. Total funding in 2024 was EUR 1.8 million.

Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 357 of 11.06.2024, "Procedures for granting state support for storm damage in the crop production sector in 2023", was drawn up, under which state support of EUR 1.135 million was granted to mitigate the damage caused to the crop production sector by the storm of 7 August 2023.

Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 641 of 07.11.2023, "Regulations on granting European Union emergency support to farmers in the fruit and berry sector and the dairy and beef cattle, sheep, goat and horse rearing sector", was drawn up, under which EUR 6.8 million in EU emergency support was granted and paid out by January 2024 to fruit and berry holdings, to cover economic losses caused by the frost and ground frost damage in spring 2023, and to livestock holdings (the dairy and beef cattle, sheep, goat and horse rearing sector), to partly cover the cost of purchasing animal feed.

Together with non-governmental organisations and the PVD, and on the basis of paragraph 10.3.1.2 of the "National Waste Management Plan 2021–2028", the Ministry of Agriculture has drawn up "Food Donation Guidelines" – a document intended as a support material for food donors to help them understand the most important things to bear in mind when donating food. The Food Donation Guidelines have been published on the Ministry of Agriculture's website.

The PVD has begun checking country-of-production indications for food products at food retail outlets. Where non-compliance is found, the "advise first" principle is applied.

To make the food delivery sector more transparent, registration of online platform food delivery couriers has begun. In the first week of registration, nine people providing services of this kind were registered with the PVD.

Fisheries

In 2024, EUR 38.5 million in EU funding was paid out for the development of fisheries.

In 2024, Fish Fund support of EUR 1 million was granted for the implementation of 134 projects.

At the end of 2024, more favourable conditions were secured for fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea in 2025. Through Latvia's active cooperation within the BALTFISH platform (regional cooperation between the Baltic Sea coastal states), a considerably smaller reduction in catch quotas for sprat and cod was achieved compared with the EC's radical proposal, which envisaged a 42% cut in the sprat catch quota and a 75% cut in the eastern cod by-catch quota. As a result, compared with the EC's initial proposal, Latvia gained an additional 3,194 tonnes of cod and sprat quota.

The forest sector

Together with other EU Member States, Latvia succeeded in persuading the EC to postpone the implementation of the Deforestation Regulation by one year.

In 2024 the VMD's "Remote fire detection and monitoring system" was expanded; it is installed on 23 fire watchtowers and monitors forest tracts in the Riga region, northern Kurzeme and part of Zemgale. The system's main aim is to identify the site of a fire as quickly and accurately as possible, making it possible to reduce the area of forest burnt. Depending on weather conditions, the monitoring cameras installed on the towers can detect smoke at distances of up to 15 km.

Veterinary matters and animal welfare

Compensation has been ensured for losses incurred by animal owners in cases of African swine fever, enzootic bovine leukosis and poultry salmonellosis.

To strengthen public responsibility in the field of pet protection and welfare, requirements have been laid down for the transfer of pets, along with requirements for animal shelters and boarding facilities, requirements for specialised pet retail outlets, and general pet welfare requirements.

To ensure the traceability of pets, the legal framework for the identification and registration of cats and pet ferrets has been improved.

To reduce the shadow economy, requirements have been laid down on the information animal owners must give when placing advertisements for the transfer of pets.

Explanations have been provided to the public about the legal requirements to be observed when travelling with a pet.

Restricting trade with aggressor states

A bill banning the import of Russian and Belarusian agricultural and animal feed products into Latvia was drawn up and approved by the Saeima and, in line with the amendments to the Law on Agriculture and Rural Development, Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 158 of 05.03.2024, "Regulations on agricultural and animal feed products prohibited from being brought into (imported into) Latvia", was drawn up, specifying the products covered by the import ban. Restricting transit within the EU internal market, however, is not possible under EU rules, since food security outside the EU must be taken into account.

A restriction initially proposed and driven by Latvia was ultimately achieved at EU level – import tariffs on certain agricultural products originating in Russia and Belarus entering the EU have been raised considerably. Work continues on setting higher EU import duties on a wider range of Russian and Belarusian products, in order to restrict imports from those countries into the EU.

Checks on Russian and Belarusian consignments have been stepped up – from 24 February 2024, enhanced controls have been carried out, including identity and physical official controls and surveillance measures with sampling for laboratory testing, covering at least 10% of products in certain product groups originating in Russia and Belarus and at least 5% of consignments brought in from other third countries, in order to prevent or limit risks to human and animal health, as well as any information indicating that consumers might be misled, in particular as regards the type, identity, properties, composition, quantity, durability, country of origin or place of provenance, or method of manufacture or production of the food.

The Ministry of Agriculture submitted amendments to Cabinet of Ministers regulations to the government for approval, in order to set a charge for enhanced or additional controls carried out by the PVD on import consignments where non-compliance is suspected, and to provide that in such cases the operator responsible for the consignment pays for the laboratory testing. In the case of enhanced controls, the charge for PVD controls will rise by 142%–280% for food consignments and by 247%–549% for animal feed consignments, depending on the type of vehicle and the size of the particular load (not counting the charge for laboratory testing).

On 13.02.2024 the Cabinet of Ministers approved amendments to the PVD price list drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to set a charge for enhanced border controls on consignments (loads) brought into the EU from third countries, including enhanced checks on the origin of consignments (with particular attention to loads from Russia and Belarus). The charge for enhanced official controls or additional controls where non-compliance is suspected will be applied in addition to the set charge for carrying out standard border controls.

Stricter requirements have been secured for bringing dogs and cats in from Russia and Belarus – at the EU's external border the PVD has carried out enhanced border controls on pets (commercial consignments of dogs and cats), including taking blood samples from the animals for testing for antibodies against the rabies vaccine virus, in order to verify that the animals really have been vaccinated. Since 16 September this year, an additional requirement has applied to anyone entering the EU from Russia or Belarus with a dog, cat or pet ferret for non-commercial purposes – the pet must undergo a rabies antibody titration test before being brought into EU territory.

In 2024 the VMD paid particular attention to imports from Russia and Belarus and from other third countries through which Russian and Belarusian timber or timber products are illegally imported. Any timber harvested in Russia or Belarus that reaches the EU market constitutes a breach of the EU Timber Regulation. The VMD has both issued warnings, following which imports ceased, and imposed administrative penalties.