SAAMA’s statistics show that during February 2019, 526 tractors (February 2018: 604 units) and 15 combine harvesters (February 2018: 21 units) were sold nationally. Farmers in most areas are unsure of what the immediate future holds in terms of crop yields. Early planted crops, mainly in the east, are generally looking good. Late planted crops are now dependent on continued rain and the absence of early frost. Maize yields, according to the Crop Estimates Committee, will be approximately 15% down this year. February tractor and combine harvester sales were 36% and 275% up respectively on sales in January.The total area currently planted to summer grains and oilseeds was 3% less than South Africa’s total plantings of these crops during the 2017/2018 summer season. Indications are that sales will be at a similar level to, or slightly less than, the [6 714] units sold last year.
In terms of combine harvesters, February 2019 sales increased to 15 units from 4 units the previous month. This, however, was still 29% lower than the levels seen in February 2018, and 46% lower than the long-term average sales for the corresponding month. The softening in harvester sales is unsurprising as this is a quiet period in the fields, with the winter crop harvest process having been completed, and the summer crop harvest still months ahead.
Going forward, we suspect that South Africa’s agricultural machinery sales will generally be subdued this year due to expectations of a poor harvest on the back of unfavourable weather conditions and a reduction in area planted.
Overall, while we cannot deduce much about the agricultural machinery investment path from one month’s data, we suspect that the sales this year will generally be subdued due to expectations of a poor harvest on the back of unfavourable weather conditions and a reduction in area planted.
Machinery and Tractors sales will increase as the year move on- Farmers are changing there way in which they use to buy machinery and tractors.
With Conventional farming growing more and more- the need for alternative machinery is almost here. Keep on marketing your machinery and stay visable.
