Brazil imported about 5,200 tractors from China in the first 9 months, up 117%

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 21, the Brazilian Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers released the latest statistics on the agricultural machinery market for 2026. From January to September, Brazil imported about 5,200 agricultural tractors from China, a year-on-year increase of 117%; during the same period, the number of tractors exported by India to Brazil was basically the same as that from China, and the two countries together accounted for 93% of Brazil's total tractor imports. The import growth stands in contrast to local market sales, with Brazil's domestic tractor sales falling 14.1% year on year in the first 8 months of this year.

Imported models are mainly concentrated in the low-to-medium power range. In the first 9 months of 2026, about 90% of the tractors imported by Brazil had a power of no more than 100 horsepower, among which 6,412 units in the 50-100 horsepower range were imported, a year-on-year increase of 56%; 3,564 units in the 24-50 horsepower range were imported, a year-on-year increase of 29%. During the same period, Brazil's total imports of agricultural machinery were about 11,200 units, a year-on-year increase of 42%, while exports were about 5,000 units, with imports more than twice exports.

The public procurement market is also an important sales channel for imported agricultural machinery. According to statistics compiled by the Brazilian Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers based on data from the national public procurement portal, the Brazilian government tendered for the procurement of 3,318 agricultural tractors in 2025, of which imported equipment accounted for 65%. If agricultural machinery and construction machinery are calculated together, public procurement for the full year involved about 10,600 units of equipment, with total procurement amounting to 3.7 billion reais. Chinese-made equipment accounted for 33.5% of the procured quantity and 26% of the value, corresponding to about 960 million reais. The above procurement statistics are classified according to the place of manufacture of the equipment; equipment of foreign brands produced in local Brazilian factories is counted as domestic products.

Igor Calvet, president of the Brazilian Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers, said that public procurement should consider, in addition to equipment prices, spare parts supply, after-sales repair, technical services and the cost of the entire life cycle. Another set of data provided by the association shows that in the first 8 months of 2026, Brazil's retail sales of agricultural machinery were about 27,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 15.8%, among which sales of combine harvesters fell 39.4% year on year.