The economic situation is slowing down the ag machinery market at a global level. But the recently held EIMA exhibition in Bologna, Italy, suffered no setbacks and hit an all-time high attendance record. Over 346,000 attendees, including 63,000 foreign guests from 150 countries, came to learn about innovative technologies for every type of agriculture.
The demand for mechanization remains potentially very high, explain the organizers of FederUnacoma and the agricultural world needs to immediately recognize the innovations and plan its investments accordingly.
The Bologna ag machinery exhibition paid off nicely for the 1,750 exhibiting industries that chose EIMA to showcase their range of new products and future “concepts”. Over 60,000 models of vehicles, equipment and components, from tractors to combine harvesters, from soil processing equipment to treatment and harvesting machines, from forestry equipment to gardening and greenery maintenance equipment, were on display. The spotlight was on robots, drones, digital technologies and artificial intelligence systems that represent the new frontier of agromechanics, and which are already capable of responding to the challenges of food security, environmental sustainability and climate change.
“At EIMA we welcomed visitors from all over the world,” explains Mariateresa Maschio, President of FederUnacoma, the Italian federation of manufacturers that organized the exhibition. “We tried to analyze the evolution of demand in the traditional markets of Europe and America, in the emerging markets of India and China, and in the newly mechanized markets of Southeast Asia and Africa.”
“Every region of the world needs its own mechanization”, adds the President of FederUnacoma. “The task of the ag machinery industry is to offer tailor-made solutions”.
“EIMA took place during a difficult time for the market, which is affected by the unfavorable economic situation, uncertainty on international markets and the transition to a new incentive system “, said Simona Rapastella, General Manager of FederUnacoma. Yet the exhibition saw no crisis and had an extraordinary outcome. “Anyone who works in agriculture knows that new technologies are indispensable – she added – and that it is necessary to get to see them up close and plan investments accordingly”, she concluded.
