South Africa is observing uptick sales of agricultural equipment and machinery, precipitating an overdue mega equipment show on May 13, 2025.
Thanks to late coming La Niña rains, the domestic Agribusiness Confidence Index (ACI) rose 11 points in Q1, 2025, quarter-to-quarter.
According to the industry’s confidence index tracker by Agbiz/IDC, the growth was the highest since end 2021.
The crop outlook has improved ahead of the Southern winter, buoying the sales performance of a hitherto lukewarm machinery sector.
By April 2025, sales were up 9% annually, with 92% of the month’s transactions comprising tractors versus combine harvesters.
Quarterly sales between January and March 2025 hiked by 27% from 2024’s, hitting 1,824 units.
Yearly sales up to April 2025 in turn peaked at 2,400 units, a 22% spike from a corresponding period in 2024.
Nampo Harvest Day
The positive growth has even motivated the holding of an equipment exhibition that has been bubbling for under a year.
This is the exclusive Nampo Harvest Day, near Bothaville in Free State, which showcases revolutionary farm machinery.
For 2025, familiar brands like John Deere and New Holland will be displaying some of their largest local equipment.
According to a Farmers Weekly report, one of the most valuable showcases is for Case IH’s in-line ripper. The brand estimates its display paraphernalia at just under 60 million Rand ($3.29 million) in total value.
Offering an even bigger estimate is Groenewald, whose showcase will represent 100 million Rand ($5.50 million) in machinery worth.
50 years after inventing its twin rotor tech, New Holland will be displaying equipment worth 85 million Rand ($4.67 million).
Some of the exhibits will be coming to South Africa for the first time as imports by local brands.
As such, a favorable climate has helped support the agricultural machinery sales that depend on good crop performance. To learn more on the status of SA’s farm machinery industry, peruse the statistics, next.
South Africa Agricultural Machinery Statistics
South Africa is a top 3 continental and top 47 global agricultural equipment leader in farm machinery count, with 63,200 tractors (2004). In terms of market value, the SA’s agricultural machinery sector was worth $810 million in 2023, per BlueWeave Consulting. The research body projects the sector to generate 7.64% compounded growth rate (CAGR) annually, to $1.26 billion by 2030.
How has the sector been performing till 2024?
According to the South African Agriculture Machinery Association, 2020-23 farm equipment sales increased annually by between 11% and 32%. Both growth and unit sales however levelled off in 2023. The table below, paraphrased from Business Tech Africa, illustrates the results.
| Year | Sales [units] | Growth |
| 2023 | 8,885 | -7% |
| 2022 | 9,556 | 21% |
| 2021 | 7,908 | 32% |
| 2020 | 5,987 | 11% |
How much area do combine harvesters cover in South Africa?
Combine harvesters represent around 8% of all farm equipment sales in South Africa monthly, as of April 2025. Despite this slight share against the dominant tractors, they expedite a harvest covering 4.41 million hectares of cropland each summer.