After the record in the first half of the year, sales of agricultural machinery began to decline due to the increase in tariffs

In the first half of the year, agricultural machinery had a turnover of $ 122,982 million, 78.1% more than in the first half of 2021, according to data from the National Statistical and Census Institute (INDEC), however, the twenty they started blowing in the opposite direction.

“We are noticing it the pace of orders is slowing down, there is a contraction in sales of agricultural machinery”, Said Eduardo Borri, president of Argentine Chamber of Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers (CAFMA) in dialogue with Clarin Rural. The cause of this retraction, as explained by the entrepreneur, is to be attributed to “overheating of tariffs, doubled by Expoagro, in March, at this pointthis meant that we no longer have a competitive rate as before and the producer is more confident ”.

“It’s been five months. we agreed on the credits a short time ago and when you were about to monetize a doubling of the rate appeared, from 35 it went to 70, or from 40 it went to 80, so this creates discomfort. Even if it seems that with inflation the rate is negative, well, it depends on what it is compared to “, explained the head of Metalfor.

Regarding the availability of imported inputs necessary for the production of machinery, Borri specified: “National producers have within them at least six months of sales stock, that is, what is sold today will be produced only within six months, with which We continue with a significant production rate. There may be a lack of a particular input which could hinder a specific production but we realize that there are only a few days left for the Central Bank regulation limiting foreign currency transfers abroad (September 30) for the purchase of spare parts basically, which is our thing, autumn, “he said. the president of Cafma.

From the CAFMA they observed that in the pre-sale of machinery that took place six months ago, “manufacturers who received advance payments turned around and stocked up on different products, not one hundred percent of the inputs needed to make a machine, so there is a high stock but not all, small quantities may be missing”, He stressed.

For Borri, “This requires a very close dialogue with the government, but the change of authority has delayed this.”And noted that they are managing the solution.

Regarding the crisis due to the lack of agricultural tires, the entrepreneur stated that he had moved towards a solution but “now there are problems in the production of Argentine tires due to the strikes and this type of conflict”.

On the other hand, he explained it yes, the finished imported machines may be missing, those that come one hundred percent from abroad. “This problem does not affect CAFMA, we defend national production. It is one thing to need a few dollars for some supplies needed to finish our machines and another thing to need thousands of dollars to bring finished machines that could be manufactured in Argentina.Bori made it clear.