The harvesting campaign debunked the stereotype of the indispensability of imported agricultural machinery
This year, the sowing and harvest campaigns took place in conditions of seriously limited opportunities for the purchase of European agricultural machinery and its components. Nevertheless, Grodno region had an impressive grain (1.4 million tons) and a record rapeseed harvest.
Amid the current shortage of imported agricultural machinery, there is an increased demand for domestic combines and other machines not only among Belarusian, but also Russian agricultural enterprises, which has a positive effect on the economy of our agricultural machinery. In fact, sales profitability at JSC Gomselmash for the first half of the year made 16.9 percent with a target of 6.7.
It should be noted that the main constraint in deciding to purchase imported agricultural machinery today is not so much restrictive measures as price. Over the past four years, the cost of an imported general-purpose tractor, as well as spare parts for it, jumped more than twice. The question arises: is it worth buying equipment at exorbitant price if it makes the farm hostage to unreasonably expensive maintenance?
As for domestic combine harvesters, 148 machines will be purchased by the agricultural enterprises of the region by the end of this year (for comparison: 35-40 machines were bought earlier). Such a rise in popularity of Belarusian machinery is linked with the debunking of stereotypes of the indispensability of imported counterparts. They have become unaffortably expensive, farms have begun to consider more affordable machines of our assembly, which are two or three times cheaper and are not inferior in quality to foreign ones. And in terms of prompt delivery of spare parts and warranty repairs, our machines are far superior.
Has this situation affected the level of yield, or, to be more precise, preserving the harvest? Yes, it has! As an example, let's take the Svityazyanka-2003, an agricultural enterprise of the Korelichy district, which has been on the ¬Republican Board of Honor six times. Last year, despite the relatively favorable weather conditions, harvesting there was delayed for 40 days: the old imported machinery was finicky, and new machines were expensive. An unpleasant situation, since a delayed sowing results in losing half of the entire crop within 20 days. This lesson was taken into account and in 2023, three new domestic grain ¬harvesters were purchased at the price of one foreign. Despite almost daily rains, the harvesting was completed in 28 days, thousands of tons of grain were saved.
There is another positive factor. The increase in demand has a positive effect on the economy of our agricultural machinery. Only in July, Gomselmash produced 289 units of self-propelled machinery, including 260 combine harvesters and 26 forage harvesters. In total, 1,780 units of self-propelled machines were manufactured in seven months. These production volumes ensured the fulfillment of the physical volume of turnover index for the enterprise at the level of 136.2 percent.
Russian partners are also beginning to adapt to the changed economic conditions. The export growth rate for the July target of 109 percent was 139 percent. Given the current dynamics of demand, JSC Gomselmash plans to manufacture 3.5 thousand units of equipment next year. Moreover, the plan for 2023 is 3 thousand.
This situation is a vivid example of developing market niches by a domestic manufacturer due to a sharp decline in the competitiveness of products of Western brands, including through systematically implemented quality policy of the company, which concerns not only the product itself, but also components and maintenance.