The organizers of the world’s largest indoor farm machinery show, Agritechnica, hope that a four-month delay will mean a safer, more successful event.
Originally scheduled for November 14 to 20 in Hanover Germany, the event has drawn a large percent of visitors from other European Union countries and beyond. It’s now scheduled to take place from February 27 to March 5, 2022.
COVID has been hanging over the 2021 event. And in February 2021, John Deere announced it was pulling out of exhibiting at the upcoming event. Others said they were evaluating their decision to participate in the international show “day-by-day.”
The postponement was announced on March 29, 2021 with the exhibit organizers citing insufficient certainty in how the COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to develop and the progress of vaccination programs. This gives exhibitors until later this summer for a deadline in their participation—which the organizers hope a clearer outlook with emerge by then for any kind of international event.
In 2019 (the most recent Agritechnica) there were exhibitors from 53 countries. And more than 450,000 visitors attended the 2019 event.
“As a world-leading trade fair, Agritechnica is the meeting point for the entire agricultural machinery industry, as well as a leading international business platform. The essential requirements for exhibitors, visitors and business partners to be able to gather again at Agritechnica are vaccine and test strategies that have been put into practice in Germany, Europe and worldwide. Our top priority is to offer exhibitors and visitors certainty in planning but this is not currently the case. As a consequence, the decision to postpone Agritechnica was taken by the DLG in close cooperation with Agritechnica’s exhibitor advisory board and VDMA Agricultural Machinery Association as industry partner,” said Dr. Reinhard Grandke, Chief Executive Officer, DLG. “We are convinced that by late summer, which is the deadline for exhibitors to register for Agritechnica 2022, we will be able to give our exhibitors and visitors the clarity necessary for certainty in their planning.”
Starting in November 2021, Agritechnica will have online education and information via its digital Agritechnica experience.
Agritechnica organizers provided these statements from two exhibitors in reaction to the postponement:
- Christoph Gröblinghoff, Vice President and Chairman of the AGCO/Fendt Management Board: “For many years now we have appreciated Agritechnica as the outstanding driving force behind innovation in the agricultural machinery industry. Nowhere else can we experience new technologies for crop production in a comparable breadth and depth. For us, Agritechnica is the ideal presentation and communication platform, as it makes the future of agribusiness tangible. We look forward to the upcoming trade fair in March 2022.”
- Klaus-Herbert Rolf, Chairman of the VDMA working group ‘Press and Advertising’; Claas KGaA mbH: “Farmers and contractors invest in their future, also now, during the pandemic. The sustained strong demand for innovative agricultural machinery, tractors and software systems make this clear. What we are missing now more than ever is personal customer dialogue and to directly experience the innovations - in a word: the fascination of a live event. Agritechnica embodies all of this like no other. We’ll be back again next March!”
