According to the Agricultural Engineers Association, British farm machinery makers exported £903m of farm equipment in the first six months of 2013, compared to imports of £940m in the same period. Overall it gave the UK a trade deficit of £37m.

These figures reflect an increase in exports of some 9% overall. Tractor exports were up 11.8%, mainstream agricultural machinery down 3.4% and engines down by 4.9%. Used tractors and other machinery were up more than a quarter.

Meanwhile imports of farm machinery decreased by 14%, tractor imports fell by 20% and tractor engines were up by 9%. Together that resulted in an overall fall for agricultural engineering exports of some 12.9%.

Rest of the world

The data for the first half of the year showed that some 66% of UK agricultural machinery exports and 53% of tractor exports by value went to the 27 EU countries.

On a value basis, North America took 28% of tractor exports (£136m), Asia took some 7% (£33m) and non-EU Europe 5% (£24m).

Tractors and agricultural machinery built in the UK were exported to 145 destinations across the world in the first half of 2013. The USA took 19.3% of the total, France took 14.7%, Germany took 9.9% and the Irish Republic took 8.9%.

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