"Overall, sales rose by 16 percent to around 10.5 billion euros. This is a seamless continuation of the exceptional growth momentum of the past two years. Export value grew even more strongly, increasing by as much as 19 percent in 2021," says Dr. Bernd Scherer, Managing Director of the VDMA Agricultural Machinery Association.

Supply and logistics bottlenecks diminish annual results

However, the industry association was not entirely satisfied. "The sales potential on the international markets was still far greater. After all, incoming orders in 2021 were consistently at a level twice as high as the increase in sales for the year as a whole," explains Scherer. Extreme price increases and bottlenecks on the supply and logistics side noticeably slowed down production at the end of the year." In the fourth quarter of 2021, sales growth was only 5 percent above the previous year – a development that our economists had already forecast in the summer, however," says the experienced industry expert.

High order backlogs are a major challenge

The industry currently has its hands full trying to process the high order backlogs in a timely manner. Alternative supply and logistics routes for components and precursors are being explored; however, due to the lack of container ships, the only option available in many places is to order by air freight, which is much more cost-intensive.

Noticeable uncertainties can also be observed on the agricultural markets. "Apart from the fact that farmers are currently confronted with skyrocketing input prices, the soaring producer prices are also based on fundamentals that are quite fragile overall. For example, the significant Chinese milk imports are very dependent on the fluctuating consumer climate," sums up Bernd Scherer.