Agricultural machinery: market still down in the first quarter of the year
All major vehicle types seeing drops in sales. Tractors fell by 7.3%, combine harvesters by 23.1%, trailers by 6.5%, and telescopic handlers by 7.9%. In contrast, transporters were up 36.9% compared to the first three months of 2024. The downturn in the domestic market and the drop in exports is causing a decline in the profits of sector industries, and is also putting investments in research and development at risk. The used vehicle market is still going up, significantly impacting for the worse the quality of technologies available to farms.
The decline in the national agricultural machinery market continues. The data for the first quarter of the year, processed by the Federation's Research Office based on registrations provided by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, indicate a drop in sales for all main types of vehicles compared to the same period in 2024. Tractors – with 3,535 units registered in the first quarter of 2025 compared to 3,813 in the same period of 2024 – dropped 7.3%, while combine harvesters fell by 23.1% (20 units compared to 26 in 2024). Trailers and telescopic handlers are also in the red. The former dropped by 6.5%, coming in at 1,685 registered units (compared to 1,802 in the first quarter of last year); while the latter dropped by 7.9% with 223 units (242 in 2024). The only category of vehicles showing positive results is that of transporters (or tractors with loading platforms), which has seen sales increase by 36.9%, going from 130 to 178 vehicles. The downturn in sales of agricultural machinery, which has now been going on for 39 months and which last year was not offset by the trend in exports to foreign markets (-15.3% for a total of EUR 6.1 billion) is significantly impacting the ability of agricultural machinery industries to invest in research and innovation, which are fundamental factors for their competitiveness. On the agricultural front, the lack of turnover reduces the productive capacity of farms and compromises the quality of production. The aging of the Italian vehicle fleet, caused by the slowdown in new purchases, is further aggravated by the growth of the used market - warns FederUnacoma - which is three times higher in numerical terms than that of new vehicles and which witnessed an increase of 8% in 2024 over the previous year. Particularly worrying is the data relating to the age of the vehicles sold, whose average is 22 years (in 2024, 70% of sales of used vehicles involved units more than 15 years old). The manufacturers' association emphasizes that in the last 15-20 years there has been a huge technological leap, which makes older vehicles incomparable to modern ones in terms of efficiency, consumption, environmental impact and safety for operators. For example, vehicle that are 15 years old do not feature safety devices such as OPC (Open Platform Communications), an advanced 'dead man' system to ensure that the tractor starts up safely and the driver disembarks in complete safety. The environmental aspect is also of primary importance, given that old tractors are extremely polluting: a newly designed Stage 5 tractor has a quantity of emissions that is enormously lower than, for example, a 2005 Stage 2 tractor, with a reduction in particulate matter of 95%.
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