The Italian Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Federation (FederUnacoma) aims at strengthening its presence in Sub-Saharan Africa with special emphasis on Ethiopia and Nigeria.
“Ethiopia is one of the best countries. The population is huge, you have very good climate, a climate that we call tropical monsoon, and you have abundant water. Nigeria is also more or less the same. There is possibility to make investment in agriculture in the future,” Alessandro Malavolti, President of FederUnacoma told The Reporter on the sidelines of Agrilevante 2019.
With the proper amount of subsidy from the Ethiopian government and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), which aims at the development of agriculture in Ethiopia, Malavolti said that there is a huge possibility for investment.
“The level of mechanization in both countries is pretty low, so, by putting in the right amount of subsidy and policy, the possibility for investment is huge,” Malavolti said.
The international exhibition of machinery and technologies for agricultural supply chains, Agrilevante 2019, took place this week at the Bari exhibition centre from October 10 to 13. Organized by FederUnacoma, the exhibition presented a wide range of technological solutions and is aimed at an audience of farmers, mechanization technicians and foreign operators attending with delegations from 45 countries organized in collaboration with the Italian Trade Agency (ICE Agency).
In addition to the machinery, there was an exhibition of about 500 heads of livestock – including cattle, horses, sheep and goats – of select breeds.
The sixth biennial edition of Agrilevante registered a record number of visitors – close to 71,000. Participants came from different Italian regions from southern Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the organizers, a qualified component was represented by foreign economic operators, coming from 45 countries, organized by FederUnacoma in collaboration with the ICE Agency, with a program that includes business-to-business meetings with companies that offer specific technologies that foreign operators have an interest in for their markets.
From Ethiopia, MOENCO Ethiopia, Kegna Agricultural Equipment, G.E.M. Engineering and Gasco Trading PLC took part in the business-to-business meetings.
The Italian Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Federation, formed in 2012 to replace Unacoma (the Italian Farm Machinery Manufacturers Association set up in 1945), brings together, and represents in Italy and abroad, the associations of Italian manufacturers of implements, self-propelled machines, tractors, components and gardening machinery.
FederUnacoma’s associates account for 80 percent of Italian production, with exports accounting for 60 percent of this production.
