EIMA Agrimach, a strategic event for Indian agriculture
The sixth edition of EIMA Agrimach India ended in New Delhi with good results. The market decline during the year (-10% as a repercussion of the boom in 2018) led to a decrease in the number of visitors. The "B2B" meetings with businesspeople were positive, while a FederUnacoma-ICE "road show" is already planned for 2020 to promote Made in Italy technologies in the country
The EIMA Agrimach international review in New Delhi closes its sixth biennial edition with an essentially positive result. The Indian three-day event that opened last Thursday 5 ended on the afternoon of Saturday 7 with a total of 34 thousand visitors coming from the various States of India and from many countries in the Far East and Africa, including China, Algeria, Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana.
The inaugural ceremony took place in the presence of the Indian Minister of Agriculture Parshottam Rupala, the director general of the Ministry of Agriculture Ashwani Kumar, the director of the ICE Office in India Alessandro Liberatori, the secretary general of the FICCI Manab Majumdar, the president of FederUnacoma Alessandro Malavolti, and the vice president of Kubota GS Grewal. In his speech, Alessandro Malavolti noted that mechanization is the fundamental tool of the policy for boosting the Subcontinent's primary economy. The main support for the development of mechanization in India - closed Malavolti - remains the "National Mission on Agricultural Mechanization" which provides financial support for the purchase of machines and equipment and the creation of "custom hiring centers". These are centers for the supply of services for third parties, i.e. companies equipped with new-concept technologies capable of carrying out agricultural work on those farms that do not have their own mechanical means".
Over 400 industries of agricultural machinery and specialized components presented their range of products at EIMA Agrimach, selected to meet the needs of agriculture of the Indian Subcontinent, which is under development and aims to improve production yields, but also the quality and healthiness of the productions. The number of visitors was lower than in the previous edition, also as a result of the negative economic situation which saw a drop in sales of agricultural machinery in India during this year. The sales of tractors are in fact down by 10%, a phenomenon that local analysts consider natural after the "boom" of 800 thousand registrations which took place in 2018, which clearly established India as the largest market in the world. The Italian companies that participated in EIMA Agrimach can capitalize on the contacts developed during the exhibition and in particular in the "business-to-business" meetings organized by FederUnacoma and ICE Agency with businesspeople from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
In the morning of Friday 6 there was an official visit by Gaurav Gupta, general secretary of the trade and industry department of the State of Karnataka, who met with the heads of the organizing bodies. The president of FederUnacoma Alessandro Malavolti reminded Gaurav Guptail of the fundamental role that agricultural mechanization has in a country like India, illustrating how the various mechanical technologies can support the production of a State such as Karnataka, which is located in the South Western part of the country and which stands out for the production of fruit and vegetables, including mango, grapes, tomatoes, bananas and onions.
The presence of the Italian Ambassador in New Delhi Vincenzo de Luca was very prominent. President Alassandro Malavolti described the methods of access to the Indian market for Italian farm machinery to the ambassador, who made an extensive visit to the pavilions, addressing a special greeting to the Italian industries that exhibit at Agrimach and that operate in India. He highlighted how the environmental impact of agriculture, which represents an absolutely critical issue for all emerging countries, can be drastically reduced precisely with the use of new generation mechanical means.
Environmental sustainability is a priority for a country like India - said Ambassador de Luca - and Italian companies that implement technologies to reduce environmental impact have great prospects for development in these regions. The advanced systems for the agri-food supply chains are more strategic than ever - the Italian Ambassador added - as well as the technologies for the use of renewable energy sources including bioenergy obtained from agricultural and agro-industrial processing waste, which the Indian Subcontinent has plenty of. The meeting with Ambassador de Luca was also attended by the director of the New Delhi ICE office, Alessandro Liberatori, and the director of the ICE office in Mumbai, Fabrizio Giustarini. In short, the Indian subcontinent represents a target area for Italian industries, and for this reason the promotional activity in the country will be supported with further initiatives. Over the course of 2020, a "road show" will be carried out in various states of the country to present the "Made in Italy" technologies best suited to the different production environments.
