Exports of agricultural machinery from Ukraine shrank by 9.4%YoY in 2019, to $37.6 million, the head of the department of investment and logistics of the Institute of Agrarian Economics, Oleksandr Zakharchuk, said.
“Traditionally, Ukraine’s export capabilities on basic agricultural machinery are much lower than imports. However, in 2019, foreign deliveries declined sharply – by 9.4% – and amounted to only $37.6 million,” the institute’s press service quoted Zakharchuk as saying.
According to him, exports of agricultural tractors saw the largest decline in 2019 – almost 2.5-fold. Last year, they totaled only $3.3 million compared to $7.4 million in 2018.
The main importer of this type of domestic agricultural machinery was Belarus. It purchased $1.1 million worth of tractors in Ukraine, or 33.3% of total sales. Romania was second, having paid $0.9 million for Ukrainian tractors (27.3%). Significantly smaller shares in imports of tractors were recorded by Moldova ($0.5 million, 15.2%), Cuba ($0.4 million, 12.1%) and Israel ($0.2 million, 6%).
According to the scientist, domestic manufacturers of agricultural machinery received the largest revenue – $10.3 million – from exports of seed drills. However, this figure decreased by 30% YoY. The largest number of seed drills – 36.9% – was purchased by Belarus, which paid $3.8 million for this type of agricultural machinery. Kazakhstan imported seed drills for $2.7 million (26.2%), Moldova for $1.3 million (12.6%), Bulgaria for $1.1 million (10.7%) and Poland for $0.7 million (6.8%).
Foreign deliveries of mowers in 2019 decreased by 9.9%, to $6.4 million. Russia bought the lion’s share of mowers and paid $4.2 million for them (65.6%). Kazakhstan purchased this type of agricultural machinery for $0.8 million (12.5%), Moldova for $0.5 million (7.8%) and Argentina, which purchased Ukrainian agricultural machinery for the first time, for $0.3 million (4.7%).
Disc harrows brought $2.8 million in total to domestic exporters last year. They were exported mainly to Moldova ($0.8 million, 28.6%), Bulgaria ($0.6 million, 21.4%) and Lithuania ($0.3 million, 10.7%), Zakharchuk said. (Ukrinform/Business World Magazine)