Internationalization, the answer

Enlarging the spread of customers abroad and increasing turnover by seeking out new business opportunities are the objectives of the Italian SME. Public entities and the private parties who gravitate around the world of internationalization are increasingly more active in the creation of opportunities. FederUnacoma has fully moved into these activities naming them as priorities for work through specific projects aimed at fostering the promotion of machinery for agriculture

Turning the clock back and taking a look at economic history discloses that in Italy the entire industrial network has rarely been swept in such a unilateral way by the need to go to work abroad. Broadening the range of customers abroad and boosting sales by searching for new business opportunities, not only among neighbors but also with more distant relatives, looks to be the objectives of all the Italian SMEs, small and medium size enterprises, dealing in design, luxury goods and agricultural machinery. Coping with an economy becoming more and more globalized, more and more investments are required by these enterprises working for internationalization. In summary, while economic relations between various countries and territorial condition around the planet are being drawn closer, enterprises are attempting to adapt to this trend and open themselves to increasing broaden markets. Especially in recent years, in addition to this world trend, there has been the great and still prevailing financial and economic crisis which has dealt a heavy blow to the more developed countries, and especially to Italy. The drop in the consumption of food products in the national market on top of increases in the cost of money, labor, technical means and production factors and fiscal pressure have forced enterprises to look for new opportunities to stay on the market and strengthen their competitiveness. Thus whether the issue is to attempt to expand the export drive by looking especially at demand in the countries with greater appeal or to increase their interest in direct investments abroad by extending their activities in this direction, internationalization turns out to be inevitable. And this is also to be hoped for, by these enterprises as well as by the nation. Stepping up work on internationalization, in fact, means more trade, more direct investments in both directions and, in the final analysis, more overall economic growth. In substance, it can be said, “Internationalization is the answer!”

Public agencies and private parties who revolve around the world of internationalization are, in fact, now increasingly more active for the creation of opportunities for companies which allow them to lay out medium and long term strategies for productive and knowledgeable expansion in markets abroad, especially in emerging areas and those with great development potential. Following the distressing slowdown which struck European exports and others, exports finally picked up with new growth in the BRIC countries – longstanding targets for joint initiatives enacted by FederUnacoma, the Italian Agricultural Machinery Federation, and ICE, the Italian Trade Agency – thanks to the tenacity of Italian companies, especially small and medium size enterprises. The renewed union of the public and private sectors appears to have created virtuous mechanisms to the benefit of Italian companies which, now more than ever, need a hand to deal with the increasingly pressing challenges from undiscovered market sectors to move into in the wake of the Asian tigers and the Seven African lions, and old and new competitors, after Europe, China and Turkey. The dialogue within associations in the category, those which have always counted as the essential voice for the leading Made in Italy sectors, and in institutions promoting the par excellence Italian industries – especially ICE Agency, the operational unit of the Ministry for Economic Development – has become more dynamic by directly involving the two sides for working together on laying out each strategy in the sector. This means the public sector, at the service of the requirements of the private side, represented by their associations, have been forged into an indispensable instrument for achieving initiatives in Italy and abroad which bring together numerous SMEs and assist them in taking their first steps toward new economic conditions. 

FederUnacoma has fully embraced these activities and named them as priorities for the work of the federation to carry out specific projects aimed at fostering the promotion of agricultural and gardening machinery and equipment and associated components, supporting manufacturers intending to penetrate new markets and providing services and assistance for these enterprises. These activities are flanked by research and development and studies of the technical norms behind the production regulations as well as representing their member companies in institutional and ministry quarters and coordination. The federation works to promote initiatives for the renewal of the interest of what have always been target markets while also aiming to develop an Italian presence in emerging areas now opening up to international trade.

Among the most important initiatives are what has become the annual participation of an Italian collective with ICE Agency in the Agrishow in Brazil, a leading exposition held this year in Ribeirão Preto where, for the 22nd edition, twenty Italian companies took over the Spazio Italiana. There was also the EIMA Show in Maharashtra, India, where Italian manufacturers staged demonstration trials of machinery and equipment for operations in vineyards and the open field for Indian business people. In addition to these events were Italian company collectives taking part in the NAMPO trade fair in South Africa, a country showing great potential, and in the Iran Agrishow for an immediate move into the thaw ahead the Vienna agreement between Iran and world powers leading to the lifting of Western sanctions.

Moreover, FederUnacoma has gone to work on the network of institutional relations to take up the need for the control of markets put under the the magnifying glass in government studies. This means not only sending collectives but also industry missions such as Italian System for the purpose of gathering information on these markets and rediscovering partners for future trade strategies. Within this idea are Egypt, for monitoring ongoing changes in the African Mediterranean scenario, the Philippines for sounding out the potential for a SouthEast Asian strategy, Angola for the exploration of the continent in growth, and in the Congo Republic, where work carried out by FederUnacoma and other entities has led to the opening of a technological training center, as well as Cuba for moving into the wind of renewal and opening of trade expected to lead to market areas to be filled by Italian products. 

In times of crisis, attempts are made to curb costs and provide industries internationalization instruments which are productive but not demanding. Thus many of the federation’s efforts in 2015 have been directed to organizing incoming missions to bring to Italy professionals interested in Italian goods for opening windows of opportunity for doing business with the manufacturers of these products. And what occasion could be better than the framework made available by the EXPO 2015 Universal Exposition? Through a careful selection process of drawing profiles of delegations most suitable for Italian production there have been five incoming delegations arriving from around the world from January to the present. Other than planning, as usual, there have been B2B meeting and visits to the production sites of some companies, stays at EXPO organized where FederUnacoma and others in the agro-industry sector pursuing the fil rouge linking agricultural mechanization and the EXPO theme, Feeding the Planet. The first delegation to arrive, in May, was made up of business people from Latin America, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Perù. The 12 members of the delegation met representatives from fifty-one companies and had 379 meetings. The second came in July with the arrival of twenty-seven delegates from Sub-Saharan Africa, Angola and Congo Republic, and from SouthEast Asia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. These delegates had dealings with forty-one companies and a total of 628 meetings. Then in September ICE Agency and FederUnacoma representatives welcomed thirty-four delegates from Argentina, Belorussia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan who met fifty-six company representatives and chalked up 907 encounters. But this is not all.

Talks with these specialists from abroad were also held in the setting of another two important events, the EIMA Show and the Garden Show, where business people interested in viewing practical demonstrations on machines at work were given this opportunity.

At the first of the two, the EIMA Show in July, focused on vineyard and open field operations, where twenty business people from Australia, South Korea, Egypt, Russia and the United States were welcomed for 290 meetings with twenty-one companies; the second event brought together twelve delegates from East Europe, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia for forty-five encounters with six Italian companies. This year with a wealth of meetings has its culmination in October with the arrival of some 100 business people in a variety of delegations, organized by ICE Agency, who will land in the splendid setting of Bari for Agrilevante to begin rounds of meetings during the run of the exposition in the sector dedicated to South Italy and the Mediterranean region.