The German producers of agricultural machinery complain about a considerable reduction in sales of their products, tractors in particular, to Russian companies. In the first quarter, the shipments to the Russian market fell 40 percent compared with the same period of the prior year, Deutsche Welle said. Representative of the German Agricultural Machinery Association Christoph Götz said exports to Russia dropped due to the political crisis in Ukraine. Other post-Soviet markets have been not favoring the German producers either. Thus, their turnover in Ukraine slumped 36%, while in Belarus it tumbled 82%. The share of the German machinery equipment is up to 75 percent in some sectors of the Russian agricultural industry. Last year, almost all imported forage and grain harvesters were produced in Germany. In April, the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues, Nikolai Pankov, called on Russian farmers to abstain from purchases of foreign agricultural machinery and switch their interest to domestic suppliers. He also said that to increase sales, foreign makers should open their factories here in Russia.
Earlier, Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev stated the government may refuse to support the regions purchasing agricultural equipment from abroad.
