Tractors: sales 'boom' in India
The Asian giant will surpass one million registered units in 2021, establishing itself as by far the most active country in the agricultural machinery market. The figures - released during EIMA Agrimach India - describe a market that has more than doubled in the ten-year period 2009-2019, and today has a clear advantage over the - also very substantial - markets of China, the United States and Europe
The EIMA Agrimach exhibition - which was held from 1st to 3 September at the Campus of the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore - is the main exhibition event in the Indian Subcontinent in the field of agricultural mechanisation.
The exhibition, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry FICCI and the Italian Federation of Manufacturers FederUnacoma, is a promotional and commercial platform to support a market - that of the Subcontinent - which has emerged in recent years as the largest in the world in terms of sales volumes. In 2009 - the year in which the first edition of EIMA Agrimach India was held - the Indian market already absorbed 340 thousand tractors, a number that placed it among the largest in the world; but in the years that followed, sales volumes grew further, reaching unthinkable levels.
According to statistics provided by Agrievolution, the association of agricultural machinery manufacturing countries of which the Indian manufacturers' association FICCI is a member, in the years 2018-2019 sales almost doubled compared to 2009, reaching 800 thousand and 724 thousand respectively, to exceed one million units in 2021. The current level of sales far exceeds all the major markets in the world, if we consider that China in 2021 reached 470 thousand tractors sold, the United States stood at 318 thousand and the European Union at 180 thousand. The country's level of mechanisation - agro-mechanics analysts warn - must be assessed on the basis of the quantities sold, but also on the quality of the technologies acquired.
Indian agriculture is aiming to increase fruit and vegetable production and specialised crops, and to mechanise all the main production chains, not least that of bio-energy. Trough the exploitation of forestry waste, by-products of agro-industrial processing, and livestock slurry, bio-energy can provide significant quantities of energy, necessary for production activities and for the daily needs of rural areas and communities in particular. For all these needs, more specialised and efficient tractors, equipment and machinery are required, and this promises further developments for the Indian market.
