Chapter 669 Start small

At that time, private agricultural machinery enterprises had not yet developed, and the leading agricultural machinery enterprises in China were all state-owned holding enterprises, and they had a very deep background.

For example, Dongfanghong Agricultural Machinery is a brand under the YTO Group. Yituo Factory is one of the 156 key construction projects during the First Five-Year Plan period, and it is the eldest son of the stable national machinery industry.

Although in terms of technology, domestic agricultural machinery leaders are still inferior to foreign agricultural machinery giants, but after all, they have accumulated for decades, and they have mastered some core technologies.

Although Fukang Agricultural Machinery has invested a lot in scientific research, after all, it has insufficient background. All it has is general technology, and core technology is lacking.

There is no way out. Traditional agricultural machinery is not an emerging industry, and the accumulation of technology in this traditional machinery manufacturing industry takes time.

For example, international agricultural machinery giants such as John Deere, New Holland, Kubota, and Yanmar have a history of about a hundred years. Without the accumulation of nearly a hundred years, it is difficult to achieve the status of giants.

Some younger brands, such as AGCO, are post-90s companies, but they continue to grow by acquiring old brands. For example, the Finnish Valmet that they acquired was once the fifth largest tractor manufacturer in the world and has a history of 60 to 70 years; the Macy Ferguson they acquired was a company established during the Daoguang period.

This is the characteristic of traditional machinery manufacturing. As long as you live long enough, you will naturally become an industry giant.

In this industry, new companies must find a different way to catch up with their predecessors. If others take the same road, you will follow the same road, then the latecomers will never catch up with the forerunners.

For example, in the automobile industry, traditional European and American brands have been around for nearly a hundred years. Japanese brands, as latecomers, have been making efforts, but in the impression of ordinary people, Toyota and Honda with a history of 60 years cannot compare with a history of 90 years. BBA, for the same reason, Hyundai with a history of more than 40 years is no match for Toyota Honda with a history of 60 years.

However, Tesla, which is only ten years old, has successfully completed its counterattack.

The reason is that Tesla is different from traditional car companies. They have taken a different path and taken a different path.

The same is true of the agricultural machinery industry. The development of emerging agricultural machinery enterprises step by step will never surpass the traditional agricultural machinery giants. However, as long as another path is chosen, for example, in terms of intelligence and unmannedization, emerging agricultural machinery enterprises can achieve overtaking in corners.

In the 21st century, even 3G has not been popularized, and it is too early to talk about the intelligence and unmannedization of agricultural machinery. Li Weidong's change of development ideas is not intelligent and unmanned, either. but miniaturization.

Just listening to Li Weidong said: If we produce the same products as those leading agricultural machinery companies, we have no advantage. If they have some core technologies, the quality of the products will be better.

If there is a fair competition, we may only be able to gain some markets through price wars and make a small profit. If we really want to make big money, it is not our turn.

It can be predicted that in the future agricultural machinery market, foreign agricultural machinery giants will occupy the high-end market, and domestic agricultural machinery can only divide up the low-end market. Among them, the mid-end market is dominated by domestic leading companies, and we, private companies, are unlikely to eat it.

As for the low-end market, due to the relatively low threshold, the competition will inevitably be very fierce. There will be a large influx of private enterprises, and even many enterprises in the mid-end market will sink and operate to seize the low-end market.

In this case, if we want to gain a competitive advantage, we must do differentiation, that is, produce products that others do not have, and expand market share by filling the gaps in market demand.

Chairman, I understand what you mean. We used to make agricultural tricycles and cotton harvesters, all of which were differentiated. At that time, there were no such products in the domestic market, and we could make a lot of money when we made them! Yue Anan said.

Ni Guilin said from the side: Chairman, with the development of agriculture today, there are no new crops anymore.

The types of agricultural machinery have also been fixed, and it is difficult to develop new types of agricultural machinery.

The type of agricultural machinery is only one aspect, and the specifications are another aspect. Although the types of agricultural machinery are fixed, the specifications and sizes can still be changed!

Li Weidong smiled slightly, and then said, As far as I know, domestic agricultural machinery companies are now developing in the direction of high-horsepower agricultural machinery, right?

Ni Guilin nodded: High-horsepower agricultural machinery has always been a high-end product in the market, which is also the weakness of our domestic brands. For example, high-horsepower tractors are mainly imported.

Domestic leading agricultural machinery enterprises, such as YTO Group, have been developing high-horsepower tractors all the time. Although the technical level has been continuously improved, there is still a certain gap between them and the top in the world.

Domestic agricultural machinery companies study high-horsepower agricultural machinery to fill the gaps in localization. They have been studying this aspect for some years, and the technological breakthroughs and technological accumulation they have achieved are far ahead of us.

If we were to develop high-horsepower agricultural machinery like them, we would have been a lot slower at the start. That being the case, we might as well do the opposite.

Others like to make agricultural machinery bigger and bigger, so we will make agricultural machinery smaller and smaller. Domestic agricultural machinery leaders are developing large-scale high-horsepower agricultural machinery, and we will study light-weight small and micro agricultural machinery!

Small and micro agricultural machinery? Is there a market for this thing? Ni Guilin asked subconsciously.

Mr. Ni, don't just stare at such large farms, you should also pay attention to those small farmers! At least our country's agriculture is still dominated by small farmers. Ordinary farmers, a household is only a few acres of land, where can it be used? Get a high-powered tractor!

Li Weidong went on to say: Except our country, such as Southeast Asia, is basically a big agricultural country, and the population is also relatively dense, the per capita land share is not high, and many places are also small farmers. These are the main markets for small and micro agricultural machinery!

Ni Guilin nodded, then said, Small and micro agricultural machinery is indeed rare in the market, but this kind of product has low technical content and low threshold. I am afraid it is easy to be imitated by others!

So what we need to do is small and micro agricultural machinery with a certain technical content. We must improve the quality and performance of small and micro agricultural machinery. Even if other companies imitate our products, they will not reach our quality and performance. , the market is still ours.”

Li Weidong went on to say: What I expect is that eventually a situation will be formed in which big companies can't look down on it and small companies can't do it. At that time, the entire small and micro agricultural machinery market will be dominated by us!

Small and micro agricultural machinery is indeed a direction for the development of agricultural machinery in the future.

In the past few decades, the development idea of ​​the world's agricultural machinery is to plant the most land with the fewest people.

As a result, agricultural machinery is getting bigger and bigger, and the horsepower is getting stronger and stronger. Many large-scale agricultural machinery are stronger than tanks, and those so-called foreign high-end agricultural machinery are all high-horsepower products.

The reason for this is that the United States is the world's largest agricultural machinery consumer market.

The United States is a large farm, suitable for large-scale agricultural farming, and many farms have to drive a plane to walk around. If it is placed in the country, let alone flying a plane, just taking off and landing a helicopter can blow away the whole family's annual harvest.

Moreover, the cost of labor in the United States is terribly expensive. The money to hire people to operate agricultural machinery may be more expensive than the agricultural machinery itself. Therefore, in agricultural production, as few people as possible should be used as much as possible.

At this time, the advantages of large agricultural machinery are reflected. The larger the agricultural machinery, the more land can be operated, and the labor force can be saved.

Based on the needs of the market, American agricultural machinery is naturally getting bigger and bigger, and the horsepower is getting stronger and stronger.

And the United States is the most important consumer market for agricultural machinery. In order to enter the US market, agricultural machinery enterprises in other countries can only develop to large-scale.

For example, Japan's Kubota and Yanmar are the world's top agricultural machinery companies, not inferior to John Deere and New Holland. But in such a small place in Japan, how much more arable land can there be? Therefore, the United States is the main export market for Japanese agricultural machinery.

In order to gain a firm foothold in the US market, Kubota and Yanmar production also focus on large-scale agricultural machinery. And this kind of large-scale agricultural machinery can hardly play a role in Japan's agriculture, and was born entirely for export.

In addition to the United States, major grain producing areas such as South America, Eastern Europe, and Australia also adopt the model of large farms. These areas use seeds from the United States and have also learned the model of large-scale mechanical farming in the United States. Therefore, the demand for agricultural machinery , and more and more like the United States, the bigger the better.

China, India and Southeast Asia are also major grain producing areas in the world. However, these areas have large populations, small per capita land area, and many mountainous and hilly areas, so there is not much land suitable for large-scale mechanized farming.

For example, in China, except for the two major plains in the northeast and north China, the south is all hilly terrain, and the central, western and southwestern regions are plateaus, and most areas are not suitable for large-scale mechanized farming.

The situation in India is similar. Although India's climate is very suitable for developing agriculture, except for the Ganges Plain in the north, the Deccan Plateau in the south also has no room for large-scale mechanized farming.

There are a large number of plains in the Indochina Peninsula region, that is, the lower reaches of the Mekong River, but that place is Cambodia, one of the poorest countries in the world, where can you afford large agricultural machinery!

Among the island countries in the South China Sea, half of Sumatra is mountains, most of Kalimantan is mountains, and most of Java is mountains, and they do not need large agricultural machinery.

The topographical features of these places are actually very suitable for small and medium-sized agricultural machinery to play their role, and these are also food production areas and consumer markets for agricultural machinery products.

However, the agricultural machinery giants in developed countries are unwilling to develop small and medium-sized agricultural machinery for these areas.

The reason is naturally because the people in these places are relatively poor!

For those agricultural machinery giants, since they can't make much money, why bother to serve them? It is better to pay more attention to the needs of some wealthy customers.

It can be said that in the past few decades, the demand of the United States has determined the direction of the world agricultural machinery market.

And those poorer countries do not have any industrial system and cannot manufacture agricultural machinery that meets their own needs.

Even if some small and micro agricultural machinery can be produced occasionally, due to insufficient industrial level, they are only low-quality products with poor performance and low efficiency, which are not as practical as raising cattle.

It was not until China's agricultural machinery enterprises began to rise and began to develop various small and micro agricultural machinery for the fragmented land in the country. This industry, which has been ignored by international agricultural machinery giants, began to gradually rise.

Among the agricultural machinery exported domestically in later generations, a large part is also small and micro agricultural machinery, and the main export targets are also the countries along the Belt and Road.

The export enterprises of small and micro agricultural machinery are also mainly private enterprises. Those few state-owned agricultural machinery leaders with profound background still do not look down on this kind of small and micro agricultural machinery.

In this regard, it can be seen from some small and micro agricultural machinery exhibitions in later generations that almost all the exhibitors are private enterprises, and most of them are from Hunan, Jiangxi and Chongqing, mainly because the agriculture in these provinces is more suitable for the operation of small and micro agricultural machinery.

In addition to China, there is another country that has been making small and micro agricultural machinery, and that is Japan.

Before the 1980s, Japan had been learning from the United States, and Japan's agricultural machinery industry also followed the United States. Basically, what kind of products the United States made, Japan followed suit.

The development history of Japanese agricultural machinery giants such as Kubota and Yanmar is actually similar to that of many Japanese companies. In the beginning, they were imitations and cottages. When they saw what new products John Deere had launched, they immediately followed suit.

After entering the 1980s, Japan's R\u0026D capabilities began to explode, and the Japanese agricultural machinery industry also began to develop its own products. At this time, Japanese agricultural machinery companies also began to develop agricultural machinery products for Japanese agriculture according to local conditions.

Japan's small land area is definitely not suitable for large-scale mechanized agriculture. Small and micro agricultural machinery is actually very suitable for Japan.

However, Japan is pursuing refined agriculture, and small and micro agricultural machinery tailored for the Japanese market also serves this refined agriculture.

For example, Kubota's small and medium-sized rice transplanters and harvesters are not cheap, but their performance is really good, and there is little waste during the operation, which is very suitable for precision agriculture.

Moreover, due to the aging population in Japan, the people engaged in agriculture are gradually getting older, so the small and micro agricultural machinery in Japan is gradually developing towards labor-saving and convenient operation, so as to facilitate the use of the elderly.

For any machine, the more labor-saving and convenient operation are pursued, it will inevitably mean higher technological content, and higher technological content also means higher price.

Although the performance of small and micro agricultural machinery in Japan is very good, there is a key point, that is, it is expensive!

Things are too expensive to be bought by farmers in developing countries.

It is also because Japanese products have more technological content, and it is impossible to sell them cheaply.

The result is an embarrassing situation where I don't cut the price and you can't afford it.

In fact, as long as a part of the technological content is removed, some prices can be lowered, and on the contrary, they can be sold to developing countries and gain a higher market share.

But the rigid and stubborn Japanese do not.

Japanese agricultural machinery companies said that I just want to save labor, to be easy to operate, and to have technological content, so that the elderly can easily use it.

However, in the vast developing countries, it is the young people who cultivate the land. What they want is not labor-saving and convenient, but affordable price.

It can be said that in terms of small and micro agricultural machinery, although Japan's technology tree is full, it is a pity that it is crooked again!

As Li Weidong said, the market for small and micro agricultural machinery belongs to the piece of meat that big companies don't like.

And if the quality of small and micro agricultural machinery is improved and the existing technical barriers are created, it is difficult for small enterprises to imitate.

At that time, there will be a situation in which large enterprises disdain to do it, and small enterprises cannot do it, and the entire market will be dominated by Fukang Engineering.

This can also be regarded as a means to achieve corner overtaking in a short period of time.

And small and micro agricultural machinery can also develop in the direction of smart agricultural machinery in the future.

The intelligent modification of small and micro agricultural machinery is definitely much easier than that of large agricultural machinery.

Starting from small and micro agricultural machinery is also to lay out the layout of intelligent agricultural machinery in the future.