The war caused significant problems with the supply of agricultural machinery, equipment and spare parts to the territory of Ukraine. On the eve of the spring sowing campaign, both external and internal logistics are blocked to supply agricultural producers with the necessary resources.

In fact, this means that farmers will carry out field work only with the available equipment from previous seasons, without updating the technical park, but for this they need to be provided with spare parts and components.

According to Oleg Nesterov, coordinator of the machinery committee of the Ukrainian Agrarian Business Club association, the supply of a significant part of the machinery that was planned to be imported by dealers for sowing (seeders, sprayers) has been frozen.

“On the part of UCAB, we are now collating with a number of manufacturers and dealers of equipment a list of the most critical positions, without which it will definitely be impossible to keep the equipment of farmers in working condition. However, it should be understood that now it is necessary to really improve the logistical conditions and optimize the work of checkpoints in Western Ukraine. After all, we all understand that we have only a land corridor from the west, from where we can import products. And the difficulties in logistics have a negative impact on the work of business and farmers,” notes Oleg Nesterov.

In the conditions of war, farmers ensure food security, therefore, downtime of equipment due to interruptions in the supply of spare parts, components, fuel and, accordingly, violations of production technology has a very negative effect on the situation as a whole.

Anton Kostyrko, Marketing Director for Eastern Europe of AGCO, which is one of the largest suppliers of self-propelled vehicles to Ukraine, said that the corporation, together with distributors, is looking for opportunities to supply equipment and solve logistics and security issues.

“There is a stock of basic spare parts in the warehouses, but we are also working on preparing the prompt delivery of urgent spare parts to Ukraine from the nearest warehouses in Europe. Service teams of distributors, as well as AGCO service support, work in a coordinated manner, covering the requests of the owners of our equipment as much as possible, where it is physically possible,” comments Anton Kostyrko.

Dmitry Davydenko, General Director of Amazone-Ukraine State Enterprise, also reassures that spare parts and components for Amazone equipment are in sufficient quantities in the warehouses of both the company and dealers.

“In the current situation, there are problems with both external and internal logistics. A particularly difficult issue is the supply of equipment to Ukraine. To do this, first of all, it is necessary to make changes to the list of machinery and equipment necessary for the production, so that it would be possible to make payments to the factory, place an order and then solve logistics issues with the delivery of machinery to Ukraine,” explains Dmitry Davydenko.

According to him, the issues of internal logistics for the supply of components and spare parts will be decided on a situational basis.

Most of the world's agricultural machinery manufacturing companies have officially announced their exit from the Russian market and the termination of the supply of equipment and spare parts to Russia due to its war against Ukraine. The Ukrainians were supported by: AGCO Corporation, Amazone, John Deere, Bednar, Great Plains, Caterpillar, Trimble, Lamborghini, Poettinger. CNH Industrial