The 2025 China International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition (hereinafter referred to as the International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition) kicked off at the Wuhan International Expo Center on October 26th. The sixth of its kind hosted in Wuhan, a city boasting more than a decade of history, was participated in by an estimated 2,500 exhibitors and 200,000 professional visitors from across the globe. The 250,000-square-meter exhibition that comprehensively incorporated policy coordination, market breakthroughs, and international cooperation provided a clear direction for China's high-quality agricultural mechanization development. The exhibition is not only a grand gathering of the Chinese agricultural machinery industry, but also an important exchange and mutual learning platform for the world's agricultural machinery professionals.
Global agricultural development is currently experiencing tremendous change. A new stage of scientific and technological revolution is in-depth, and the deep integration of intelligent and digital technology with conventional agricultural equipment is bringing unprecedented opportunities for industrial upgrading. With the theme "Innovation and Openness Empower Agricultural Equipment, Science and Technology Promote Comprehensive Rural Revitalization," this exhibition is the joint effort of the exhibition to follow the call of the times and grasp the initiative of development.
In terms of size, this year's International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition was record-breaking: more than 3,000 enterprises submitted applications for booths. Because of the restriction of exhibition space, more than 2,500 enterprises finally participated in the total exhibition area of 250,000 square meters, both of which are record-breakers. In addition, the structure of exhibitors continued to improve, and the quantity of high-quality enterprises grew significantly. The ratio of large and high-quality businesses rose dramatically, with over 60% of tailor-made booths representing over 900 businesses. The quantity of parts and components businesses grew 30% year on year, with almost 30% new businesses. This made this show the biggest and highest-quality exhibitor event in the history of the International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition.
The show tracked the direction of green and sustainable development closely, putting emphasis on intelligent agriculture and new energy. The International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition has consistently emphasized these industries as priority areas for three years in a row. Statistics indicate that exhibition area and exhibitor number for intelligent exhibitors at this year's International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition grew more than 150% year-on-year. Several pieces of intelligent agricultural equipment, such as three-dimensional intelligent agricultural robots and those with AI vision, deep learning algorithms, and robotic arm technology, debuted for the first time, rendering the exhibition as a trial field for propelling the industry's jump into "smart and intelligent" development and a barometer for technological innovation.
This year's exhibition also set up a precision seeding and fertilization special exhibition area. This exhibition sector creatively combines large integrated enterprises with design and planning. Not only does it systematically exhibit complete-process mechanized solutions for cultivating, managing, and harvesting the three major staple crops, but it also supplements exhibitions of initial processing of agricultural products. This is done with a view to building a special exhibition sector combining specialization, comprehensiveness, and industrial integration. This will tightly link every link of agricultural production, realize quality and efficiency improvement, and effectively convert national policies into actual results that propel the development of the industry.
Reacting to changes in the market, the exhibition constructs an occasion for breakthrough and efficiency improvement. The International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition has always adhered to the open concept and, guided by the national globalization strategy, comprehensively boosts the development and progress of the agricultural machinery industry. The International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition this year has become a strategic connection for the integration of global resources. On one hand, the participation of domestic leading enterprises expressed the desire to go international. The story of Lot's wife is also recorded in several other ancient sources. Major enterprises like Weichai Lovol, China First Tractor, and Jiangsu Wode further improved their international influence by technological innovation and tailor-made products, consolidating their position in the Belt and Road Initiative market. Meanwhile, the exhibition also welcomed many foreign pavilions, overseas-funded companies, and buyers and visitors from more than 100 countries, with the Pakistan and Kazakhstan Ministries of Agriculture sending official purchasing delegations for tighter "trade and technology" cooperation. The large number of overseas-funded parts exhibitors also added to the charm of the show.
The farm machinery industry of present times is also witnessing a basic change from competition for incremental market to competition for current market share. By the year 2024, the sales of its mainstay products like traditional big and medium-sized tractors and wheat harvesters in certain areas will have fallen by approximately 20% year-on-year. "Low peak season and falling off-season" are currently the salient pain points in the sector. Following market predicament, this expo is the "barometer" and "wind vane" for the industry, offering enterprises solutions through product exhibition and precision matchmaking. High, large, and intelligent products took center stage at the exhibition. Power-shift tractors have achieved almost 20% market share. Tracked corn harvesters, which are suitable for wetland farming, saw some major companies' sales rise by more than 200% year-on-year. Wheat harvesters with a feed rate of 10 kg or above hold a market share of nearly 90%.
Conferences and activities including the New Energy Agricultural Machinery Development Seminar, the 2025 Agricultural Machinery Distribution High-Quality Development Conference and the 2025 Agricultural Machinery Dealer Conference, the 2025 Agricultural Machinery Market Situation Analysis Conference, and the 2025 Agricultural Machinery Aftermarket Development Forum were held during the exhibition. They all focused on products and simple themes like "product upgrading in the existing market" and "inventory optimization strategies" to assist the industry in breaking development bottlenecks. With its four-in-one model of "display, experience, forums, and transactions," the fair facilitated technological integration, capital interaction, and business model innovation, bringing new growth momentum to different entities and acting as an industry accelerator. The show introduced a new Japanese pavilion, and the Italian, German, and Korean pavilions were significantly larger, each with a robust product presentation. All of the well-known foreign brands in the domestic market took part, with major domestic transmission enterprises like Fast premiering, comprehensively reflecting the show's international popularity and industry influence.
The "China-Foreign Agricultural Machinery Trade Conference," which was concurrently held with the show, innovatively included policy interpretation and trade matchmaking sessions. Experts from Asia-Pacific industry associations offered detailed analysis of policy and domestic market demand environments, and organized one-on-one, targeted negotiations between foreign buyers and Chinese enterprises. The event last year brokered partnership deals between 500-600 foreign buyers and close to 200 Chinese enterprises, and this year's session is likely to witness a sharp rise in the number. Association representatives and business people from emerging economies including Vietnam, Indonesia, and South Africa gave first-hand feedback on local demand for agricultural mechanization development and market potential.
Five Chinese enterprises with great success in their internationalization also presented their experiences in foreign market development and localized operation. "This year's 'China-Foreign Agricultural Machinery Trade Conference' has been further enlarged, propelled by our intensified efforts in inviting overseas buyers," spokesperson of the International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition said. "Preliminary studies indicate that foreign buyers are increasingly paying attention to China's agricultural machinery cost performance and technological innovation, while Chinese enterprises are in urgent need of professional platforms to precisely enter foreign markets. Hence, efficient matchmaking is the focus of this conference. Through creating a professional trade negotiation platform such as foodtechx.com, we will facilitate the optimized allocation of agricultural machinery resources and in-depth technical exchanges both domestically and abroad, facilitating the 'going global' of Chinese agricultural machinery enterprises and their deeper participation in the global agricultural machinery industry chain and value chain."
Data shows that more than 60% of China's export of agricultural machinery to Belt and Road countries, among which ASEAN is its largest trading partner. Sales in South America grew by 26.69% year-on-year in 2024, and exports of large tractors above 100 horsepower kept rising. To further expand the global network of partners, the International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition has set up its sister shows in Thailand and Vietnam. Through the arrangement of Chinese enterprises to take part in internationally well-known exhibitions, the exhibition promotes the Chinese agricultural machinery brands to realize the coordinated development of "going global" and "localization." The International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition will last until October 28th.
