YOUR INDUSTRY
MACHINERY SUPPLY ISSUES FEATURE: GET IN QUICK Words by Glenys Christian
Growers are being warned that they need to start conversations with machinery suppliers right now to avoid some of the delays that have been experienced in delivery of new equipment over the last year. Kyle Baxter, the president of the New Zealand Tractor and Machinery Association (TAMA), says that its message to get in early isn’t just a sales pitch. “Companies and manufacturers are gathering orders and commodity prices are ramping up,” he says. With these northern hemisphere companies busy supplying summer demand in their home markets at present, nine to 12-month lead times could be the norm for New Zealand farmers and growers. So TAMA is urging its 40 members, who represent 90% of tractor sellers and 80% of those selling other agricultural equipment,
to keep up to date with the market to be able to pass that information on to intending buyers. As it was six months before the disruption to European manufacturers affected machinery supplies to New Zealand, he describes the situation through last year as “lumpy.”
By July, August and September commodity prices were increasing “European manufacturers worked through Covid-19, but some businesses here listened to the media and thought there would be a big slow down,” he says. “By July, August and September commodity prices were increasing.”
Tractor sales are up 19%
for the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year pre-Covid-19, showing just how rapid the recovery has been. 20
NZGROWER : MAY 2021
