Development of Privatization in Latvian Agriculture, The

The two most important laws regulating land reform and land privatization in rural areas provide the legal basis for changes in land ownership and management. These laws were the starting point for reestablishing private farming. At the same time, the previous highly centralized management of agricultural production assets required that action be taken to decentralize these assets through privatization. The primary guidelines for privatizing these assets were provided in the Law on Land Privatization in Rural Areas. The law provided for a large degree of flexibility in the design and implementation of privatization at the enterprise level. There need be certain structural adjustments in upstream industries supplying agriculture with main inputs and downstream industries processing and marketing agricultural products. Recently the Latvian Parliament passed the Law on Privatization of Food Processing and Agro-service Enterprises. Asset privatization began in 1993 and is moving rapidly. It will undoubtedly show shortcomings and advantages of various approaches used by different industries. The purpose of this paper is to explain the legal framework for agricultural and food industry privatization, as well as to present two examples of privatization.