Behind every animal or vegetable, and for every food that ends up on your plate, there is always a machine. Patented and improved by man according to the needs of the most diverse consumers. And behind each machine for agriculture and food there is a world of researchers, designers and builders that sees Italy at the top international level in terms of production capacity and breadth of range. An industry that matters at least 300 companies active for a total turnover of approximately 11 billion euros, stable in the last two years, of which 5 achieved on foreign markets. The latest encouraging data concerns exports to the USA in the first half (+17,8%). While the forecasts for the end of 2018, overall, indicate a contraction in exports on an annual basis of 4,2 percent.
That of agricultural machinery made in Italy – represented by tractors, combine harvesters, other means of processing raw materials, before and after harvesting, gardening machines and components – is a strategic sector for the made in Italy agri-food and economy. “An industry strongly internationalised – recalled yesterday Alessandro Malavolti, president of FederUnacoma, on the eve of the 43rd edition of Eima International (Fiera di Bologna, from 7 to 11 November) – with large and small companies operating on every continent to satisfy a growing demand for machines and equipment, especially in emerging markets”.
Of course, Malavolti explained, climate change, trade tariffs and geopolitical tensions in some areas are causing some uncertainties this year, despite the fact that the overall global economic context is still positive. “We are not in a recession or in stagnation – said the president of the manufacturers – but in Italy there is still concern for the slowdown in industrial production (-0,3% in October), and an agriculture that records growth in added value and employment, but also in costs”. Conjunctural elements, these, which add to the chronic Italy's inability to use EU resources (“as of September, on the national average, only 20% of the funds of the rural development programs were spent”), but also to a EU legislation which on the environmental front homogenizes the agro-mechanical sector with the automotive sector, with unsustainable burdens for companies ("in Brussels we are working to have a derogation of another five years").
And then there is the age-old problem of vehicle safety In circulation. “In Italy – thundered Malavolti – there are still 2,15 million tractors that are over 25 years old and which, due to their obsolescence and lack of overhaul, cause 200 deaths a year”. A heavy balance, Inail data in hand, which places agriculture in second place, after construction, among the most dangerous sectors in terms of employment. Added to this is the fact that around 580 thousand tractors, registered before 1973 but still circulating, are now outlawed and at risk of seizure. Despite this, from 2014 to 2017 used tractors increased by 42%, from less than 25 to over 35 units.
Hence the need for a "Structured multi-year plan for the replacement of the national agro-mechanical park, and not of a commercial scrapping”, added the president of FederUnacoma. Considering that "until now politics has been completely absent, but now it will have to listen to us, if only because ours is the second largest industry in the world". In tandem with the United States.
Meanwhile, Eima International (second trade fair in the sector after the German Agritechnica in Hanover and second overall in Italy after the Milan Furniture Fair) is launching four keywords to "meet" an increasingly young, technological agriculture with a growing presence of women at the helm of companies: in addition to "safety”, in as many “dedicated” pavilions we talk about youth entrepreneurship, of water resources e digital: computer systems and precision agriculture 4.0 with the help of drones and satellites.
This year in the Bologna Fiere exhibition centre there are 1.950 manufacturing industries, of which 600 are foreign from 49 countries. And a record turnout of 300 visitors is expected.
