Global demand for agricultural equipment is forecast to expand 6.6% per annum through 2019 to over $193 billion. Advances at the global level will be largely driven by market growth in China and other industrializing nations, which will account for over two-thirds of all new agricultural machinery demand generated between 2014 and 2019 in value terms. Livestock machinery is projected to register the fastest market increases of any major agricultural equipment product type through 2019. These and other trends are presented in “World Agricultural Equipment,” a new study from The Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based industry research firm.

Sales of agricultural goods will rise at a healthy pace in most developing countries because of economic, population and per capita calorie intake growth, as well as the expansion of processed food and beverage industries. According to analyst Gleb Mytko, “As local agricultural commodity demand rises, farmers will need to invest in new equipment and replace outdated machines in order to boost output and increase the productivity of their operations, causing agricultural mechanization rates to rise.”

Farmers will shift from using fairly basic equipment to larger, more powerful models as farm incomes rise and more farmers are able to access the capital needed to invest in large-scale crop and animal production, adding to market value gains. Government agricultural sector support programs and additional foreign investment in the agricultural sectors of developing nations by companies in Japan, North America and Europe will also drive both farming activity and related equipment sales through 2019, as global demand increases for healthy, organic and exotic foods such as quinoa and heirloom grains.

In industrialized nations, which are already intensive users of agricultural machinery, sales gains during the 2014-2019 period will be largely spurred by replacement demand. A variety of factors impact agricultural equipment replacement patterns in developed countries, including the overall economic environment, access to financing and the development of new, technologically advanced models that can boost crop yields and reduce production costs. Though they are projected to register slower growth than their developing world counterparts, a number of mature markets — including Spain, Austria and the Netherlands — will record solid gains through 2019 as economic conditions improve.