Farmers looking to renew their machinery are mostly opting for affordable, low-power universal tractors due to uncertain production and low crop prices. To support these buyers, agricultural machinery dealers have introduced various measures to share some of the risk and make new tractor purchases more accessible.
At the mechanization exhibition during the Agricultural Fair, the highest demand was for tractors with power between 60 and 100 kilowatts. Farmers often base their purchasing decisions on current cereal prices, which are not favorable. Davor Balog from Verušić explains, “With wheat priced at 19-20 dinars and barley at around 16 dinars, farmers wonder how many loads of wheat or corn they’d need to sell to pay off a new tractor.”
To ease these concerns, dealers are offering longer loan repayment grace periods, extended warranty coverage, and in some cases, reduced interest rates. Dejan Jovanović, a distributor of agricultural machinery, said, “For a long time, we’ve offered 20% down payment with 3% interest over three to five years, which has been well received. Next week, we plan to offer financing with zero percent interest for three to five years on these tractors.”
European combine harvester sales have dropped by 40% in the past year, with similar declines continuing into the early months of this year. Fabio Ricci from the Italian Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Association attributes the stagnation to ongoing global challenges but hopes for improvement in the second half of the year.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture’s subsidy program for purchasing Serbian-made tractors up to 60 kilowatts remains open until the end of the week. Interest in the program has been strong, with over 4,000 applications received but funding currently available for only about 500.
Minister of Agriculture Dragan Glamočić noted, “We hope to access additional funds from IPARD by the end of the year to gradually increase mechanization renewal.”
Experts estimate that Serbia needs to purchase approximately 20,000 agricultural machines and tractors annually to maintain domestic mechanization. However, the current market turnover for new machinery in Serbia is about four times lower than this target.
