Subdivided competition creates a new pattern of potato harvester market

　　In many harvester fields in China, potato harvesters can be called emerging products. I believe that the familiar potato harvester product is potato harvester. Since potato was listed as the four main grains of rice, wheat and corn in 2016, the maturity dimension of potato harvester products has been continuously improved and achieved rapid development, It has become one of the few hot spots in China in recent years.

　　In fact, potato harvesters not only refer to potato harvesters, but also include cassava harvesters, sweet potato harvesters and other products. These products have both similarities and differences. In recent years, the potato harvester market has shown more and more segmentation characteristics in the continuous progress.

　　Not yet large-scale, growth can be expected

　　In terms of the current market volume, potato harvesters are definitely small items in subdivided fields. According to the subsidy system data, the annual sales volume of potato harvesters has not yet reached the threshold of 10000 units. In fact, due to the large number of miniaturized products in this category, the proportion of products naturally sold in the market is very high, Therefore, the statistical caliber of sales volume can be relatively accurate only by combining subsidy data with market monitoring.

　　Based on the analysis of the market changes of potato harvesters in recent 10 years, potato harvesters occupy the absolute proportion of potato harvesters, and the industrial competition pattern is basically formed. However, mechanical products such as cassava harvest and sweet potato harvest have only entered the initial channel of localization in recent years and are still in the basic development stage. Throughout the development process of potato harvester market, it can be divided into three stages, which is matched with the progress of potato crop industrialization.

　　In the first stage, from the founding of the people's Republic of China to the early 1990s, the localization of potato harvesting machinery was in its infancy. At this stage, Chinese R & D personnel successfully developed the lifting chain potato harvester on the basis of foreign machines and tools such as the former West Germany and the former Soviet Union, but it was not effectively promoted due to the lack of supporting power and other resources. Later, the domestic manufacturer successfully developed the squirrel cage potato harvester based on the R & D idea of supporting the hand-held tractor, Limited by the lack of supporting power at that time, the use effect of the product was not ideal.

　　In the second stage, from the mid-1990s to 2015, the domestic manufacturing of potato harvesters was mature. At this stage, the domestic tractor products were gradually upgraded, which effectively solved the problem of insufficient supporting power. The potato harvester gradually entered the product finalization period. Small lifting chain potato harvester, vibrating potato harvester and other products successively entered the market, and continuously upgraded to medium-sized products, gradually entering the product maturity stage.

　　The third stage, from 2016 to now, is the stage of comprehensive upgrading and development of potato harvest mechanization. At the beginning of 2016, the guiding opinions on promoting the development of Potato Industry issued by the state pointed out that the transformation of potato from non-staple food consumption to staple food consumption, from raw material products to industrialized series of manufactured products, and from food and clothing consumption to nutrition and health consumption should be realized as a supplement to the three main grains of wheat, corn and rice in China. In the next few years, the domestic potato industry made great strides. The planting area and output accounted for 1 / 4 of the world, becoming the largest country in potato production and consumption. At the same time, domestic potato harvesters have been upgraded rapidly, the operation efficiency, overall performance and reliability of small and medium-sized products have been improved to a new level, and the process of large-scale and intelligent products has been gradually accelerated and entered a new development period. At the same time, with the adjustment of domestic supply side structure, the potato industry, as a category of cash crops, has developed rapidly, and the supporting cassava harvester, sweet potato harvester, sugar beet harvester and other products have made rapid progress.

　　In terms of market performance, the key nodes in the process of potato harvester industry have high recognition. In particular, in 2016, the national potato staple food strategy was officially implemented. In that year, the annual sales volume of potato harvester increased by nearly 40%, and then in 2017, the market sales volume doubled, reaching the peak of annual sales volume in history, Nearly 15000 units. Unexpectedly, from the second half of 2017 to 2018, domestic potato prices fell and suffered a "frost year". During the peak period of listing, the sales price of potatoes was unsatisfactory, the purchasing enthusiasm in the terminal market was low, the market price reached the lowest level in the past five years, the profits of potato growers were meager, some even suffered losses, and the planting enthusiasm of users was frustrated, The investment enthusiasm of potato harvesters decreased sharply, and the rigid demand of the market decreased. In 2018 and 2019, the overall market sales of potato harvesters fell sharply. In 2020, the market gradually climbed out of the trough, the market sales achieved double-digit growth year-on-year, and the annual sales volume was nearly 10000 units.

　　Since this year, the market performance of potato harvesters is still commendable. While the market demand for small and medium-sized products is stable, the trend of large-scale is obvious. It may run steadily and upward throughout the year, and the annual sales volume may exceed 12000 units. It is expected that potato harvesters still occupy the absolute sales proportion, and domestic cassava, sweet potato and other harvesters are still dominated by product and market cultivation.

　　Positive superposition, market segmentation

　　With the adjustment and optimization of modern agricultural structure, cash crops have ushered in a new opportunity period, such as cotton, sugar beet, rape, sugarcane, etc. of course, potato, cassava and other potato crops are no exception. In recent years, the planting area has been increasing, and the demand for mechanization has also been strengthened.

　　Based on the present and looking ahead, there are many positive factors facing the potato harvesting machinery market. First, the support of the national subsidy policy is inclined; Second, the price of potato products, especially potato products, has risen; Third, the promotion of planting standardization and large-scale planting have greatly improved the mechanical harvesting conditions; Fourth, after years of technological accumulation, the maturity of domestic products has increased; Fifth, the growth slowed down for two consecutive years, forming a market "depression", but the endogenous driving force of user demand is still strong, and the market rebound is expected.

　　In terms of industrial structure, there are nearly 70 domestic potato harvester manufacturing enterprises. From the perspective of scale and volume, small and medium-sized enterprises account for an absolute proportion. Among them, the potato harvester manufacturing system is relatively perfect, and cassava harvesters, sweet potato harvesters and other products are still in the stage of technology accumulation and difficulty breakthrough. In the domestic manufacturing system, Sinomach, Shandong Wuzheng, Qingdao Hongzhu, Shandong Tiancheng, Henan Kunda and other well-known enterprises are ranked at the top, all of which have formed their own exclusive advantages. At the same time, the world's top brands, such as German grimme company and American double-L, have entered China one after another, with increasing influence. Foreign high-end combine harvesters have a high degree of automation, which can harvest potato, carrot, sugar beet and other tuber crops. They have large utilization space and high operation efficiency, and firmly occupy the high-end market field, but their whole machines and accessories are expensive, It is difficult to be accepted by mass users.

　　The speed of the development of potato harvesters is directly related to the planting area of regional potato crops and the degree of industrial progress. According to the statistics of market sales monitoring data in 2020, Yunnan, Shandong, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and other provinces occupy the top few in the market sales and the absolute proportion of the overall market sales. While the sales are leading, It shows the characteristics of accelerated product upgrading, obvious large-scale trend and market segmentation.

　　First, product upgrading. The main focus is on the improvement and progress of operational applicability, reliability, functional compatibility, and advanced performance, especially domestic brands. In recent years, product maturity has been greatly improved.

　　Second, large-scale. With the accelerated process of land transfer, intensive and large-scale planting represents the development direction of modern agriculture, which requires the help of large-scale and high-end mechanical products to achieve greater operation efficiency or output, which also represents the development direction of agricultural machinery industry.

　　Third, the characteristics of market segmentation are obvious. On the one hand, the demand for large-scale products in regions with contiguous land such as northwest, Xinjiang, northeast and Central Plains has increased greatly. At the same time, the demand for small-scale products in hilly, mountainous and other regions and individual users has not decreased; On the other hand, the mechanical types and structural forms of different crops such as potato harvest, cassava harvest and sweet potato harvest are developing in two directions: compound type and special type; Moreover, different regions adopt differentiated marketing strategies in different regions to cultivate exclusive user groups and exclusive brand regions, and the degree of market segmentation is deepening.

　　While the demand for potato harvesters in the domestic market has entered the rising channel, the export business has also sprung up. In particular, domestic small potato harvesters have been exported to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and other countries, forming a certain brand influence.

　　On the whole, the potato harvesting machinery market is in a good rising period. In the next few years, the prospect is good. The rising demand for large-scale products is synchronized with the increase in sales of small personalized products. All enterprises must make efforts in technology research and development, improve product quality, win user recognition and achieve continuous progress.

　　More than innovation, high-end force

　　Today, China's agricultural machinery industry is entering a middle and advanced stage of innovative development. With the mature market of traditional products such as tractors, agricultural vehicles and rice transplanters, the stock competition situation is severe. Driven by the adjustment of agricultural industrial structure, emerging and small agricultural machinery markets such as animal husbandry machinery, cash crop machinery and feeding machinery are entering a period of rapid rise and innovation, So that the industrial pattern changes with each passing day.

　　Potato harvesters are no exception. If we want to meet the needs of users to the greatest extent and become famous on the global competitive stage, technological breakthrough and product innovation are the only way. We must focus on the following two aspects.

　　First, comprehensively improve product quality and operation performance.

　　Excellent quality is the most basic index of all products, but lack of reliability is a common problem of domestic agricultural machinery products. For example, the domestic market of semi feed harvesters has been monopolized by Japanese brands. In fact, the operating performance of domestic semi feed products is not much worse than that of Japanese brands. The main fatal point is insufficient reliability and high failure rate, Continuous operation cannot be guaranteed. In order to realize the progress of potato harvesters, the disadvantage of insufficient reliability must be eliminated. Taking potato harvesting as an example, affected by the temperature difference between the South and the north, the average growth period of domestic potatoes is relatively short, especially in the main northern production areas such as Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang, which are prone to frost in the harvest season, so it is necessary to operate continuously in a relatively short operation time to quickly complete the harvest, If the harvest is stopped due to machine failure during harvest, it will cause huge losses. In this sense, reliability is a hard index. Therefore, whether large-scale enterprises or small and micro enterprises, they must focus their main energy on products and carry out fine management in the whole process of industrial design, technical process, raw material selection, component procurement, processing control, process control, experimental improvement and continuous upgrading. They should make long-term plans. They must not speculate and count on "making fast money". At the same time, it is necessary to comprehensively combine different agronomy in different places, launch more applicable products on the basis of guiding standardized planting, and fully meet the differentiated operation needs of users.

　　Second, find out the industrial division, and make efforts to high-end large-scale products on the basis of consolidating their own advantages.

　　There are many agricultural machinery enterprises and many agricultural machinery brands in China. No category market is the "blue ocean" market in the absolute sense, and competition is everywhere. Therefore, it is very important for any enterprise to find the correct positioning and establish an industrial advantage zone. As we all know, the domestic agricultural machinery industry has always been short of medium and low-end surplus and high-end shortage. "Following the trend" and "getting together" are long-standing disadvantages in the operation of agricultural machinery enterprises. Enterprises that can jump out of this strange circle can seize the market opportunity. In terms of category division, potato harvesting machinery is not only divided into potato, cassava and other categories, but also into large-scale and small-scale products. Relevant enterprises should find the correct positioning in combination with their own strength, consolidate their core competitive position and work towards the high-end field. After evaluating the current manufacturing level of domestic potato harvesters, it is not difficult to find that domestic high-end large-scale potato harvesters are still in the primary stage, and there is a big gap with the world's top brands. For example, in the field of potato harvesters, foreign countries have applied hydraulic technology, vibration analysis, electronic technology and sensor technology to operating machinery Excavation with hydraulic technology; Sensing technology was used to control the amount of soil feeding, potato transportation and graded loading; The use of air pressure, air flow and photoelectric technology for soil crushing and separation, and the use of microcomputer for monitoring and operation greatly reduce the working intensity of workers. For example, the world's leading German grimme company has launched a 4-row, 360kw TEC - tron415 full-function harvester, equipped with 10t bin and side lifting arm, which can realize uninterrupted operation. Its designed turning radius is only 1.1m. At the same time, it has applied cci200 compatible agricultural machinery terminal operating system with supporting significance, making the operation more simple and intelligent. What is more noteworthy is that many foreign products adopt different cleaning and separation devices and fruit picking devices, which can realize the joint harvest of peanut, garlic, onion and other rhizome crops and realize the extension of multi-functional operation. Moreover, the joint operation model promoted by the world's leading brand can integrate the functions of excavation, soil removal, seedling removal, grading, bagging and loading, and complete the whole process at one time. The degree of automation is very high. This development trend is worthy of high attention and in-depth research by domestic agricultural machinery manufacturing enterprises and benchmarking the international top level, Domestic manufacturing still has a long way to go.

　　Like other agricultural machinery categories, potato harvesters are one of the indispensable agricultural machinery products in the process of modern agricultural development. With the acceleration of the transformation of domestic agricultural planting structure from binary structure to ternary structure "food crops + cash crops + feed crops", it is believed that potato harvesters will continue to usher in more and more vigorous market demand. Whether it can fully meet the needs of domestic users and seize the commanding heights in the global competition requires the unremitting efforts and innovation of all agricultural machinery people. Let's wait and see!