Fendt sold 13,678 new tractors last year, and while the economic environment in the agricultural equipment industry remains challenging, forecasts similar numbers this year. The company also forecasts slightly higher sales of Fendt combines and balers and stable sales for the Katana self-propelled forage harvester. For grassland equipment, delivery of the first machines will begin this month, and the company expects to sell over 500 Fendt mowers, tedders and hay rakes by the end of this year. In excess of 90 percent of Fendt tractors and harvesting machines are destined for Western and Central Europe. “Our medium-term objective is to continually increase Fendt’s market share in Europe, from its current 8.3 percent to 10 percent,” says chairman Peter-Josef Paffen of the AGCO/Fendt management board. Speaking at an international press conference in Marktoberdorf, Germany, Mr Paffen said the company already enjoys a good market share in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria, ranging from ten to nearly 20 percent. “We want to maintain, stabilise and – where possible – continue to expand these two-digit market shares. We continue to see growth potential in the EU countries Great Britain, Spain, Italy and Scandinavia as well as in all Central European countries, which have an average market share of about five percent. We are assuming that a market share of 10 percent is feasible for Fendt in each individual country in Europe.” Parent company AGCO continues to invest heavily (around 60 million euros this year) in R+D to ensure Fendt achieves these percentage gains and the message is important future projects are going according to plan.