AMAZONE is a global player in the ag machinery industry. The company has gained its worldwide reputation for a wide range of specialized and innovative crop farming machines. “We keep moving on and by doing so prove our strength”, says Christian Dreyer, Chairman of the Board and great-grandson of the company’s founder Heinrich Dreyer. “Every year a step forward. With all the challenges we are facing. Technology is the answer.”
By Ad Bal
Founded in 1883, AMAZONE celebrates its 140th anniversary this year. From the inception of the company to the present day, it went through a steady growth up till its current size. In 2022 consolidated turnover reached EUR 804 million, of which 80 percent accounted to export. This makes crystal clear that AMAZONE is truly an international company that is currently managed by Christian Dreyer and his cousin Dr. Justus Dreyer.
“Our great-grandfather Heinrich Dreyer founded the company in Osnabrück, Germany and started with the production of a grain cleaning machine”, says Christian. “He had the ambition “to go out in the world”, and so it happened. The first grain cleaners were exported already in 1906. Surprisingly, these machines didn’t go to the neighboring countries Denmark, Netherlands or Austria which would have been obvious, but to Valparaiso in Chile.”
This was logical, as immigrants from the Osnabrück area in Germany moved to Chile in those days and they took the AMAZONE grain cleaning machine with them. And that is how the machine found its way to Chile, export started and the success of AMAZONE took off. Ploughs, cultivators and other machinery followed and were shipped in knocked down kits.”
“A real success in the sixties of the past century was our ZA mounted twin disc fertilizer spreader”, Christian Dreyer continues. “This truly was a breakthrough, as it was a clear answer to the pendulum spreader which was on the market already. The D4 seed drill was also a breakthrough. Both products were a step forward in the development of ag machinery and the expansion of AMAZONE. My grandparents aimed to develop and produce high end / high technology machines, and this has paid off in view of our ongoing success. “
Global markets
“Today we ship our products to 75 countries and sell them through 65 independent importers. Moreover, we have our own offices in the UK, France, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Romania, China and North America. In Brazil, AMAZONE has worked together with the Stara company, but this joint venture has come to an end. Stara is, however, still using the AMAZONE colors.”
Currently India is the fastest growing country in the world and its population has even surpassed China. Is there a market for AMAZONE?
“We do not consider India to be an important target market for us at this moment. There’s still much hand labor in this country, which is gradually being replaced by mechanization. Average farm size is still very small. This explains the enormous volume of tractors produced by Indian manufacturers nowadays. But these are low tech tractors in the low horsepower segment. As a result, mechanization in India doesn’t match our high-tech solutions now. Eventually, this will change in the future.
This also holds true for countries on the African continent. In general, the conditions in these countries much differ from ours which makes it difficult to make a step forward in this region. Nonetheless, we do have good distributers in South Africa and its neighbouring countries, as well as in Egypt and Morocco.
North America is a completely different story, since it has already started using machines and technology of European origin and we can understand why. European manufacturers develop high tech solutions that minimize the use of fertilizer and take emissions to a lower level, which is in line with the sustainability goals of the United Nations to preserve our Mother Earth.
This is what also meets our long-term objectives and strategy to develop and produce high tech, future-oriented machines. Our mission is to keep on developing machinery that contributes to feeding the world population. That’s a major challenge. Agriculture around the world will have to produce food in a sustainable way to meet the demands of the future. The world population is growing, and the agricultural land surface is limited. The challenge therefore is to keep producing high yields with less inputs and lower emissions; in other words, further optimize production.
It will not be possible to implement this all around the world in the same way and to the same extent. In some regions we will have to find a compromise.”
Not for sale
“Anyway, technology is the key solution. The use of sensor technology, camera systems, autonomy and software solutions will dominate the entire production chain. In this context, we consider close cooperation with other relevant companies to be of great importance.
During the upcoming Agritechnica trade show in Hanover this November, we will display 24 of our future oriented solutions. We will keep moving on this way forward and organically grow AMAZONE further with high tech solutions, like we have been doing during the past 140 years. We will closely cooperate with other companies and enter alliances with them, should this be required and possible. However, AMAZONE is and will remain a family-owned business. We are not for sale”, Christian Dreyer concludes.
