Italian Agricultural sales were down in last year’s balance sheet for all the main types of agricultural machinery.
FederUnacoma Believes the Italian Ag Market is Stable
The market downturn, to be considered partly technical after the boom of 2021, is also due to the well-known supply problems and the sharp rises in raw materials. The demand for machinery, however, remains at high levels, thanks to public incentives.
The appropriations for agricultural machinery envisaged by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) are on their way.
Problems in the supply chain, the sharp rise in raw material prices and the uncertainties of the geopolitical scenario are affecting the performance of agricultural machinery, which closed 2022 with a decline compared to the record growth recorded in 2021.
Registration statistics, compiled by FederUnacoma on the basis of the data provided by the Ministry of Transport, indicate a contraction for all the main categories of vehicles, starting from tractors which show a drop of 17.1%, on the 20,217 units registered.
The decline in sales hit, above all, the medium and medium-high power units, concentrating in particular on the 56 to 75 horsepower segment, which, with a total of 4,354 units registered, fell by 43.7% in 2022.
An anti-cyclical trend instead characterised the low-powered units. In fact, while the 19 to 56 horsepower (5,034 vehicles sold) substantially confirmed last year’s volumes (-2.9%), the power ranges up to 19 horsepower improved the volumes of 2021 (+26.2 %) with 1,061 tractors registered.
As for the other types, the balance sheet is also in the red for combines (-9.7%), with 354 machines registered, and for telehandlers which, with 1,175 registrations, are down 21.2% compared to last year, interrupting a phase of growth that had continued uninterrupted since 2019.
Tractors with loading platforms and trailers are also following market trends: the former close the year with a loss of 21.4% (529 units registered), the latter with a decrease of 11.3% (8,398 units).
The contraction of the market, on which the well-known economic factors have clearly weighed, can be considered partly physiological, i.e. as a “technical” drop after the extraordinary trend seen in 2021 (+35.9% for tractors, +29 8% for combines, even +56% for telehandlers).
Indeed, even in 2022, explains FederUnacoma, the demand for agricultural technologies remained at high levels, benefiting, among other things, from public incentive tools for the purchase of machines.
The comparison between the data for the past twelve months and the average trend of sales over the last five years shows a positive balance for tractors, combines and telehandlers.
The prospects for 2023 are still linked to the evolution of economic variables, from the price of raw materials to the costs of logistics through to the developments of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but on the Italian market, adds the manufacturers’ association, further measures will also weigh of facilitation that the government is making operational in these days with the agreement of the State-Regions Conference on the allocations of the PNRR for innovation in the agricultural machinery sector, for which an organic plan is needed. Moreover, concludes FederUnacoma, the PNRR, which alone is insufficient to cover the national need for agricultural technologies, should be accompanied by a repeatable measure expressly intended for agriculture 4.0 and the purchase of innovative and sustainable mechanical means.
