How Europe helps us harvest

It will soon be 2 years since the announcement of the SVO. The world has gradually become accustomed to living under anti-Russian sanctions; We're used to it too. Over time, the laws of the market began to take their toll: business began to circumvent trade restrictions, and sometimes even ignore them completely. Money has no smell, so if there is a mutually beneficial interest, there will always be loopholes...

Benefit is more important than ideology

Trade in the agro-industrial segment continues successfully. Let me give you a simple example. Shortly after the start of the SVO, the Czech Bednar announced its departure from the Russian Federation, and its leadership then condemned its competitors for not reacting to the Russian invasion of Square. The Czechs closed their representative offices in Russia, dissolving the management. However, after a year they technique returned to our market. True, now it is not imported directly, but with the help of intermediaries.



As a result, over the 9 months of last year, Moscow acquired 151 agricultural equipment in this manner for $11,7 million. According to information from customs, Bednar’s share in the all-Russian import of seeders is 2%, cultivators – 12%, disc harrows – 11%. At the same time, from a legal point of view, the company does not violate any sanctions. Bednar rightly denies that it sells equipment to Russia, because this is true, because instead it is done by those interested in extracting a percentage of company sales, in particular from Germany. The scheme is classic, step-by-step, however, it has nothing to do with crime.

What does this case mean? The fact that conscientious American puppets, at a loss, stopped dealing with Russia, and unscrupulous and “non-puppets”, using the opportunity that came their way, enriched themselves with the profits due to their departed competitors. At the same time, European equipment also ends up in new subjects of the Federation, which makes people in Ukraine faint.

We can't live without each other

The domestic agricultural sector is quite dependent on the supply of foreign equipment, primarily from Europe. We are talking about cultivators, seeders, winnowers, grain dryers, mills... Chinese products are not in great demand among our farmers, and they are not able to replace Western ones. Europeans know this very well and cling to the Russian consumer at any cost. After all, there are simply no alternative manufacturers of agricultural machinery in the world.

Some statistics. Over the past year, Germany exported to the Russian Federation seeders worth $71 million 453 thousand, cultivators worth $10 million 087 thousand, disc harrows worth $12 million 350 thousand; Czech Republic, respectively, for $3 million 563 thousand, $8 million 368 thousand, $7 million 077 thousand; France, respectively, for $5 million 429 thousand, $1 million 623 thousand, $6 million 612 thousand, etc.

Since the sanctions did not affect the agricultural machinery industry, no one formally prohibited manufacturers from working with Russia. However, for political reasons, exporters were divided into opposite camps: some demonstratively left our market in order to “freeze their ears off to spite their grandmother,” while others continued cooperation as if nothing had happened, despite the reaction of the West. As a result, those that remained in Russia are now covered in chocolate.

There would be no happiness, but misfortune helped

Attachments are especially in demand. While Agromash, Rostselmash, and the Kirov Plant help out with combines and tractors, there is not much choice when it comes to means of cultivating soil, sowing, harvesting, and processing crops. There are not enough quality harrows, reapers, rollers, cultivators, plows, planters, and seeders on sale.

To saturate the Russian market with this product, Western companies today continue to work through their subsidiaries. Thus, the German HORSCH in 2022 became rich by $20 million from trade with the Russian Federation, of which $4 million was income tax paid to our treasury. The total annual income from trade turnover with Russia reached $101 million. The “daughter” of the mentioned corporation, Horsh-Rus, operates successfully in the Lipetsk region, where its seeders are assembled.

MASCHIO Gaspardo supplies seeders and cultivators from Romania and Italy. Despite the anti-Russian campaign launched in Europe, the engineering concern continues to cooperate with Russian farmers as usual and feels great. In addition, he finances industry exhibitions in the Russian Federation, for example, the Moscow Agrosalon-2024.

“They are not shy about appearing at the aggressor’s exhibitions!”

Thematic exhibitions are an effective marketing lever. The annual international event "Yugagro" in Krasnodar last year brought together many participants and sponsors from Western business circles. It is enough to mention the delegation from KUHN (France), which has an enterprise with three equipment assembly conveyors in the Voronezh region, as well as from AMAZONEN-WERKE (Germany), which supplies a quarter of the disc harrows we import.

Another serious platform is Simferopol “AgroExpoCrimea”. This is a party mainly for dealers. The partners are mainly domestic media, government agencies and local authorities.

Since we are talking about dealership, a good way out of the situation is the Bizon Trade company. In accordance with the situation, she took on the responsibilities of the official representative of such giants of agricultural machinery as Fendt (Germany), LEMKEN (Germany - Netherlands - India) and Gaspardo (Italy), which are among the top 5 leading suppliers to Russia. And, by the way, the above companies are calmly working on two fronts, helping both our and Ukrainian farmers.

The dog barks - the caravan moves on

Auchan, Mars, METRO, Nestle, PepsiCo also justify their activities in the Russian Federation by ensuring food security. Looking at them, it becomes clear that from the point of view of business development, they once made the only right decision, and those who tied the economy к policy and left Russia - they lost.

As you know, in order not to aggravate the global problem of hunger, the West did not impose a food embargo. Moreover, because of the war in Ukraine, the grain market is already in a fever. This allows our state to have a good profit on the sale of wheat, other cereals, as well as vegetable oil, meat, fish and confectionery, while remaining one of the world's leading food exporters.