A booth at EIMA 2024 runs from November 6-10 in Bologna. The emerging agricultural machinery markets will be countries of Southeast Asia and Africa in the future. —VNS Photo Hoàng Hà
ROME: In the next few years, South-East Asian and African countries, including Vietnam, are expected to emerge as potential agricultural machinery markets, according to the Italian Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Federation (FederUnacoma).
The agricultural machinery sector is forecast to grow significantly in the near future, but the geography of the markets will change.
Major markets in Europe and North America will maintain a high level of investment to ensure high standards.
Emerging markets will be South-East Asian and African countries.
Meanwhile the two Asian giants, India and China, will stabilise their mechanisation rate on the large quantities achieved in recent years.
The demand for agricultural machinery is destined to grow significantly in regions where there is a lot of agricultural development due to population growth.
Thus, much greater technological equipment is needed than those currently in use, said Mariateresa Maschio, FederUnacoma president.
A key South-East Asian country is Indonesia, which even today has nearly 300 million inhabitants.
This makes it one of the most populous in the world that is destined to further increase its demographic weight in the coming years.
In Indonesia, imports of agricultural machinery have been growing steadily for the past 15 years.
They have gone from a value of €140mil in 2009 to almost €700mil in 2023 with an average growth of 8.6% each year.
Experts expect this figure to increase further over the 2024 to 2027 period, with an expected growth rate of around 6.7% each year.
Imports of agricultural machinery are also growing in other populous South-East Asian countries.
Vietnam with 100 million inhabitants expects imports to increase by 6.2% annually in the 2024 to 2027 period.
Fabio Ricci, deputy director general at FederUnacoma, said that in 2015, FederUnacoma and the Italian Trade Agency organised a business mission with some Italian companies coming to Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho, Vietnam.
Italian companies do not really have the right technology for rice production, because Vietnam has different types of rice fields.
So, the most appropriate technology for rice production in Vietnam comes from Japan and South Korea, according to Ricci.
“The main opportunities for the Italian agricultural machinery industry are in Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable production,” he said.
“There is strong fruit and vegetable production in Can Tho.
“During the visit, we had some discussions to establish in Can Tho a technological centre for agriculture. Unfortunately, the global pandemic hit, so everything was stopped,” he said.
“Anyway, our government is pushing us to resume the establishment of this centre after the Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, and Forests Minister visited Viet Nam last year,” the president of FederUnacoma said.
Meanwhile, the Philippines with 110 million inhabitants will likely increase its imports by 7.8% over the next four years.
Thailand with 71 million inhabitants in particular is expected to see an annual increase of 6.8% in the same period, after very slow growth in the last 15 years equal to just a 1% average per year.
Population growth – the source of this growing demand for agricultural technology – will also be decisive in Africa, starting with Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to FederUnacoma.
Nigeria, which already has 230 million inhabitants, will have over 400 million in 2050.
This will make it the third most populous country in the world, followed by Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, both with well over 100 million inhabitants.
All three countries are destined to see significant growth in the next 20 years, entering the ranks of the 10 most populous countries on the planet. — Viet Nam News/ANN
