An Optimistic Spirit on the Baltic Sea – 
Lessons from Lat-via and Lithuania

Four days in the Baltic States yielded a wealth of insights: in June 2026, the DLG Club European Arable Farmers (EAF) travelled to Latvia and Lithuania. The following article is the personal account of EAF member Willemien Verbeek.

“What a great, large agricultural area, and what wonderful entrepreneurs in this sparsely populated corner of the Baltic” – that thought crossed my mind more than once. I travelled expecting to see well-run farms and to pick up a few new perspectives. I came back with a much broader understanding: these four days showed how closely agriculture, infrastructure, energy issues and geopolitics are intertwined, and how pragmatically many people there deal with it.

Geopolitics as a Daily Reality

That thought first took hold during our visit to the German Embassy in Riga. Military attaché Christoph Karich and deputy ambassador Heike Jantsch outlined the security situation in the Baltic states, and it quickly became clear how present that topic is in daily life here.

There was extensive discussion of the Suwałki Corridor: the narrow strip of land linking Poland and Lithuania, wedged between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. It is the only direct land link between the Baltic NATO states and the rest of Europe. The Suwałki Corridor, Kaliningrad and the war in Ukraine are often just topics in the news for us back home. Here, they determine daily life.

One day before our visit, on 8 June 2026, a drone was shot down over Latvian territory by NATO forces for the first time. That's when it really struck me: safety here is not an abstract concept, but the basis for everything that follows – including for agriculture. A modern arable sector depends on secure trade routes, reliable logistics and stable export markets. Without security, food security is also at risk.

At the same time, I was struck by how level-headed Latvian society is about it. Through education, defence programmes and strong engagement from young people, resilience is being built, along with the awareness that freedom and security cannot be taken for granted.

The Port of Riga: Adapting to a Changing World

That realisation was reinforced during our visit to the Strik Terminal in the port of Riga. The terminal, part of Scandagra Latvia, was originally built to handle Russian and Kazakh coal, with a capacity of 5 to 6 million tonnes per year. Today it mainly processes wheat and rapeseed.

With a water depth of 15 metres, a storage capacity of 168,000 tonnes and a handling capacity of 800 tonnes per hour, the terminal is built for large international flows of goods. Latvia produces around 3.5 million tonnes of grain a year, most of which is exported – both within and outside Europe, including to Africa.

The loss of Russian transit traffic has, however, hit the port of Riga hard and forced it to reinvent itself. Where coal used to be the main cargo, agricultural products now form an increasingly important pillar. What struck me most was the speed with which entrepreneurs here adapt: change was not treated as a problem, but as a reason to create new opportunities. I would encounter that mentality throughout the trip.

Dobele Mill: Creating More Value

The second day began with a visit to Dobele Mill, one of Latvia's largest food producers, specialising in processing grain into flour and pasta. It became clear here that strong agriculture does not stop at the harvest. Value is not only created on the land, but also afterwards.

The 21-hectare site employs around 480 staff. Storage and processing capacity each amount to around 380,000 tonnes per year. Around 65 percent of production is exported to more than 70 countries, making Dobele Mill a major international player.

At least as interesting as its scale were the choices the company makes: it invests not only in production, but also in processing, energy and cooperation with growers. I was particularly impressed by the sustainable energy strategy: through its subsidiary Dobele Eco, the company operates a combined heat and power plant that runs almost entirely on wood chips. In winter it also supplies heat to the town of Dobele; solar panels are also planned.

Also interesting was the cultivation programme for durum wheat: to encourage farmers to grow this crop, they receive a premium of MATIF + €100 per tonne – a good example of how well cooperation with farms can work.

That got me thinking. The more a region processes itself, the more economic value stays within that region.

UAB Agropirma – Entrepreneurship Knows No Age

Perhaps this company impressed me the most, not because of its size, but because of the entrepreneur. In northern Lithuania, near the town of Šiaulėnai in the municipality of Radviliškis, we visited UAB Agropirma, the arable farm run by Georg Kleingarn. Georg is only about 26 years old and started out completely from scratch in Lithuania a few years ago; he has since been building a modern farm step by step, and will soon marry his German girlfriend, whom he met there. It shows that entrepreneurship is not just about hectares and machinery, but also about courage and perseverance.

Today he farms around 1,020 hectares, of which 55 percent is owned – with a remarkably small structure: one permanent employee, seven seasonal workers and one administrative assistant, and yet he manages this large area efficiently. The crop rotation is entirely geared towards a healthy financial result: winter wheat and winter rapeseed form the basis of the farm, with legumes also included in the rotation. This way, the farm not only meets European requirements, but also strengthens soil fertility and crop diversity.

He summed up his entrepreneurial philosophy in one sentence that stayed with me for the rest of the trip:
 

“What matters is not the impression you get in the combine, but the final yield across the whole field.”
 

In the end, entrepreneurship is about the overall result. Age or size do not determine success – vision, perseverance and the willingness to seize opportunities do.

Innovation and Animal Welfare Hand in Hand – Future Farm

From UAB Agropirma we travelled on to Future Farm, an impressive dairy farm that is part of the Agrokoncernas Group. Since 1993, founder and agronomist Ramūnas Karbauskis has developed the group into an integrated agricultural company with arable farming, dairy farming, grain storage, food processing, research and renewable energy.

What particularly appealed to me was his entrepreneurial vision: profits were not withdrawn, but consistently reinvested in further development. You can see the results at Future Farm. On 53 hectares stand ten modern barns that will eventually house around 10,000 cattle, of which roughly 4,500 are dairy cows.

The size of the company is impressive, but what perhaps surprised me even more was the attention paid to animal welfare: spacious, bright and well-ventilated barns, wide walkways, comfortable lying areas, clean drinking water and constantly fresh feed. Everywhere we saw calm animals, cow brushes, health sensors and close attention to barn climate. A healthy, relaxed cow, after all, performs better.

Farm management is equally well thought out: a central feed kitchen prepares all rations, and the 100-stall rotary milking parlour processes hundreds of cows per hour. The farm also works with scientists on animal health and emissions reduction, and uses cattle manure to produce biomethane – linking dairy farming with renewable energy.

I left with the conviction that innovation only becomes truly valuable when it benefits both the company and the well-being of people and animals.
 

UAB Nissen Farm: Investing with Common Sense

Our last company visit took us to UAB Nissen Farm in Pasvalys, in northern Lithuania, close to the border with Latvia – known for fertile clay soils and large, well-consolidated fields. The farm was founded in 2000 by Danish entrepreneur Hans Christian Nissen, and shows how Danish entrepreneurship has been successfully combined with the opportunities of Lithuanian agriculture.

The farm covers around 5,000 hectares of arable land as well as a dairy branch with 1,540 dairy cows. Here too, it was not so much the size that made the impression, but the way investments were made: almost every expense has to pay for itself. Where possible, used machines or materials are reused – not out of economy, but out of the conviction that every investment should contribute to a stronger company.

One detail that stuck with me was the atmosphere in the dairy barn: music plays all day long, and as soon as milking begins, the system automatically switches to a Danish march. It is a nod to the founder's origins and a fixed part of the daily routine.

LATRAPS: Stronger Together

The excursion ended at LATRAPS in Eleja, in the fertile Zemgale farming region of southern Latvia. This cooperative, wholly owned by more than 1,200 Latvian arable farmers, has grown into Latvia's largest agricultural cooperative. By marketing grain, rapeseed and other crops jointly, its member farmers have a much stronger market position than they would have on their own.

LATRAPS does not limit itself to trading; it invests continuously in storage, logistics, export and innovation. Profits flow back to the cooperative and its members, strengthening the competitiveness of Latvian agriculture.

A great example of this is the Taste Factory, where yellow peas are processed into plant-based proteins, starch and fibre. In this way, farmers create value themselves, rather than merely supplying raw materials, serving the growing demand for plant-based protein.

During this visit, I realised again how much power there is in cooperation. Where individual farms often cannot bear such investments alone, LATRAPS shows what is possible when farmers take joint responsibility for the entire chain.

What I Take Away From the Baltic States

What I took away most from this week is the mentality I encountered everywhere. In both Latvia and Lithuania, I felt a strong willingness not to wait for better conditions, but to build for the future with today's possibilities. Entrepreneurs there consistently invest in their soil, their companies, cooperation, processing and innovation.

For me, this excursion was much more than a series of company visits. It reaffirmed the value of European knowledge sharing: you not only get to know other companies, but above all learn to look at your own company differently.

What also struck me was that almost all the entrepreneurs had the same message. They were not asking for more subsidies or new regulations, but above all for clear, reliable and consistent European policy. Farms can cope with change and risk, as long as they know the course being steered. Only then will they invest in projects that pay off only after ten or twenty years.

As far as I'm concerned, this also includes a consistent European agricultural policy. When we talk about a European single market, it also requires rules that are as uniform as possible – this applies to the authorisation of crop protection products just as much as to regulations on animal welfare, fisheries and ornamental horticulture. Only this way will genuinely fair competitive conditions for agriculture emerge within Europe.

In Latvia and Lithuania, I saw how government and farms work towards a strong agricultural sector based on a common goal. The question at the centre was not “Is this allowed?” but “How can we make this possible?” That attitude gave me food for thought. Perhaps we in Europe should put less energy into differences between Member States and invest more in clear, consistent rules that give entrepreneurs certainty and encourage innovation – the kind of reliable vision that lets profitability, innovation and sustainability go hand in hand.

I travelled to the Baltic States to visit inspiring farms. I came home with a much broader view of entrepreneurship, cooperation and the future of European agriculture. Despite geopolitical tensions, the farmers there keep investing in that future.