Agricultural MachineryVDMA Agricultural MachineryLyoner Strae 18 60528 Frankfurt Phone+49 69 6603-1305 Fax+49 69 6603-1464 E-Maillandtechnikvdma.org Internet www.vdma.org/landtechnikVDMA, DesignStudioBusiness Report 201020131LANDTECHNIK GESCHFTSBERICHTpresented at the general meeting on September 19th and 20th in Hamburg2010 2013Business ReportMoving Forward Together!“2AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY REPORTFOREWORD3All these issues can only be tackled successfully and moved forward effectively if a transparent structure is in place. At the VDMA Agricultural Machinery Association, our performance targets are reflected in four fields of operation:1. VDMA Products 2. VDMA Networks 3. VDMA Communication 4. VDMA OrganisationAt product level, the member companies of the VDMA Agricultural Machinery Association have a package of services at their disposal today which is unique in Europe. In order to guarantee the excellent standard of the highly regarded service that we provide well into the future, we must always be in a position to react flexibly to changing demands and to respond swiftly to them. The fact that we are successful in doing so is illustrated by our comprehensive portfolio of market information and statistics, which has been broadened considerably and above all has been given a more international scope in the past few years. We need to ask ourselves the following key questions for the future: Which regional, national and global developments in agriculture and agricultural machinery are measurable and how can we map them? And how can we generate and gather together this kind of market information, in particular in growth markets, efficiently and retain a high standard of quality? To bring all this knowledge together more purposefully, among other measures, we are also focussing on our new Agrievolution network which acts as an effective platform for leading international agricultural machinery associations. Over the past few years, the story of the agricultural machinery industry has been one of complete success: our development has been characterised by highly innovative products, an outstanding international reputation and an extraordinary economic momentum and we are justly proud of it. Last year, we were able to post an all-time high of record sales of 7.7 billion. Yet such success is not necessarily a given in our industry. It is based on a clear strategy on the part of each individual company and on the part of the collaborative work of our association within VDMA, which plays a very important role in highlighting industry-wide issues and formu- lating responses in the interest of our sector.In order to set our associations course for the strategic challenges of the next few years, we have been devoting our time to intensive discus- sions with the senior managers of our member companies on key issues regarding the future of the agricultural machinery industry. The main aim behind these efforts was the need to prepare the VDMA Agricultural Machinery Association to meet the challenges ahead effectively and successfully. As part of an open-ended stocktaking exercise, we started by carefully clarifying and prioritising the opportunities, risks and parameters within the remit of our association. Our responses to the great challenges in the global fields of world nutrition, energy security, networked and integrated technology and resource efficiency represent an important opportunity and are therefore right at the top of our agenda. Dear members,Moving Forward Together Strategies for the Future of the Agricultural Machinery Industry“4FOREWORDlack of specialists. Raising the profile and increasing the attractiveness of the agricultural machinery industry to enable young people to make the right career choices is therefore our main remit. It is important to ensure that the organisational structures are in place to enable these strategies to be put into practice. This is why we have reviewed and improved all the relevant procedures and services at VDMA during the reporting period with projects on the efficiency and effectiveness of committees and processes to ensure that we are able to act more effectively and transparently than ever before. Effectiveness and transparency are however also political lobbying issues which as you will be aware is no longer simply a German pheno- menon. Europe has now become the central arena where all the key industry and economic policy decision-making takes place. For this reason, we have invested a considerable amount of resources in preparing our European umbrella organisation CEMA for the tasks ahead. Yet there are also huge challenges on the agenda beyond Europe: our future markets in Eastern Europe, in particular Russia and the Customs Union states, remain a concern due to on-going tariff and non-tariff trade barriers. In order toOur commitment to the international trade fair scene is an equally important instrument in this process. Our recipe