CEO, CLAAS Group, CLAAS KGaA mbH
Podcastul Agriculturii Românești - Potențialul agriculturii din România cu Jan Hendrik Mohr - CLAAS
🆕„Dacă aș fi din nou tânăr, m-aș gândi, cu siguranță, să mă reprofilez spre agricultură”, subliniază invitatul nostru, Jan Hendrik Mohr, în podcastul de azi.
👉Astăzi, vă invităm să urmăriți dialogul cu membrul Comitetului Executiv al Grupului CLAAS, unul dintre cei mai importanți producători de tehnologie agricolă cu centru regional în București.
Dacă ați ratat episode, le puteți urmări oricând pe Facebook FarmForum, Youtube, Spotify sau Google Podcast!
#podcastulagriculturiiromanesti
About Jan-hendrik Mohr
In a February 2024 podcast, Mohr discussed his career and the company's products, noting that he began his career at CLAAS 40 years ago in the development of the Xerion tractor. He described the Xerion as a "wonder of technology" and highlighted its "crab steering" feature, which allows the cab to rotate. Regarding the company's operations in China, Mohr stated that CLAAS has established local production and value creation there, while continuing to export machines from Germany and France to China. In a January 2023 podcast, Mohr described agriculture in Romania as fitting into the global picture of food production and responsibility. He noted that while there are differences in culture, soil, and climate across Europe, there are also many commonalities in farming methods. Mohr expressed that corn has a great future in Romania due to its yield potential, and he encouraged young people to learn about modern farming. In selected quotes, Mohr stated that agriculture is key to feeding a growing world population and expressed sympathy for farmer protests, provided they remain democratic and peaceful. He also said that the industry needs to attract young people into agriculture and agricultural machinery development.
Transcript (15 segments)
A
Alina1:11
Hello Mr. Mohr, welcome to Romania. We are happy to have you here. In this field event, we would like to congratulate the company because you have 10 years of direct activity in Romania. We know that our farmers are very happy with your machinery generally.
J
Jan-hendrik Mohr1:35
Oh, that makes me happy. I hope our farmers are happy.
A
Alina1:40
I would like you to tell us, what do you think generally about agriculture in Romania, and how do you see the changes in the last few years in Romanian agriculture?
J
Jan-hendrik Mohr1:52
Alina, that's a very interesting question. I think first of all, agriculture in Romania is fitting into the big picture of agriculture worldwide. In particular these days, many people are discussing the importance of food availability, but also of course the prices of food — affordability. It's a big question around the world, and as food goes back and forth between countries and continents, it is a very sizable business as well. Coming back, it's a big responsibility to feed people. In this regard, Romania is one of those countries where farming is big and also farm produce is exported to other countries and other continents. Romania in that regard has a certain responsibility — responsibility at this point in time, and more than that means future. For agriculture in Romania in particular, due to these topics — exporting agricultural goods to the global markets — there will be a great future and great importance to farming in Romania.
A
Alina3:08
Yes, I think the world responsibility is very suitable. We have to be responsible because we are not producing only for Romania and not only for Eastern Europe, but for people around the world. We know that cereals from Romania arrive to the Middle East or to North Africa. For this purpose, we need strong and big machinery. So I will ask you: are you ready for the Romanian farmers and for the new challenges in the future, regarding the new regulations and the new perspective of performance for the farmers?
J
Jan-hendrik Mohr3:48
First of all, I might state that CLAAS is providing all kinds of sizes of machines. There are small CLAAS machines, bigger CLAAS machines, machines which are more simple, and other machines which are quite complex due to electronic systems and digital usage of data and so forth. So we have a wide variety. If you talk about big farms, of course, CLAAS is especially well prepared in that terrain. CLAAS has always been about technological leadership, about performance leadership — that is what we are. We saw today even in difficult harvesting conditions, very wet conditions, but we are very well prepared. This is also where we link in Romania, in particular on farms like this one here today, but also with other bigger farms. And that segment is developing. It fits very well the CLAAS approach in Romania. By the way, for 10 years we have had our own activity in Bucharest, which is serving not only Romania but also beyond, countries like Bulgaria. We try to manage from here our machinery sales and spare parts sales and so forth.
A
Alina5:24
What is the specificity of the Romanian farmer, or Eastern European farmers? Because we think ourselves that we are different, that it is more important for you to be present here. But I imagine that the German or the French farmer thinks the same. So maybe you have a general approach, and you can tell us: are we different, or are there a lot of similarities between farmers across Europe especially, and we should all prepare for the future?
J
Jan-hendrik Mohr5:55
I think there is of course always some differences concerning culture, how you grow crops, and so forth. Certain methods are different, the soil is different, the climate is somewhat different as well. But there is nowadays also a lot of commonality. What kind of seed and genetics are you planting, what kind of chemicals you apply, how do you manage to fertilize to the point — not too much, but also enough. I think there are many topics which are very alike. And this is why CLAAS, for example, is able to share technology in the European Union in particular, between countries like France, Poland, Germany, and Romania. These are absolute core agricultural areas, and to a certain degree we are sharing the same technology all across. And in particular in this very professional segment of farming — you speak about professionals.
A
Alina6:57
This is a question that a lot of farmers are asking these days. Do you think that we have enough young people, prepared to do the job in agriculture? Because what you propose in machinery, seeds, pesticides, and fertilizer are more and more technical products, and we need very well prepared farmers. Do you think in Romania or in Eastern Europe we are sufficiently prepared technically and professionally, or do we need to do more in this aspect?
J
Jan-hendrik Mohr7:30
I think we have to do more together. Maybe in that regard, all across industries, manpower is lacking, as well as competence. The requirement for manpower is growing, and the requirement for competence is growing as well. So what we have to do more is in particular to attract young people into agriculture, or into the production and development of agricultural machinery. I think that is bound with each other. And that's a kind of marketing job. Farming is not old style anymore — it's very modern, it's very digital. There are tremendous chances, chances for people who want to participate in that regard, and a great future at the same time. If I would be young, definitely I would think about moving into agriculture — not only because I grew up on a farm, but in general it's a very attractive terrain to grow and to shape a professional life. I can only ask even city boys and girls to get out into the countryside to learn about modern farming. It is very attractive.
A
Alina8:48
To ask you a last question: do you think that in Romania we will have very soon a real European Corn Belt? Are we going to be as strong as you want us to be, especially in corn, but not only in cereals?
J
Jan-hendrik Mohr9:05
I think corn in general is winning all across the world because the yield potential in corn is tremendous — maybe even higher than in wheat and other crops. So I think it has a great future in Romania, in particular. In some areas, you might be able to harvest within one year — now that's something we do not have in Germany, for example, and I thought this is unique to Romania. And then corn as well, soybeans — they might play a major role to be able to harvest twice per year, again including yield potentials and so forth. I am really sure that corn is having a great future in Romania. And by the way, our machines are fitting perfectly.
A
Alina9:54
I fully agree. Just a last message for our farmers watching — just the last message.
J
Jan-hendrik Mohr10:00
We love to work with farmers. As I am myself a farm boy, for me there's nothing better than to combine farm machinery with farmers. It's just fun. Thank you.
A
Alina10:15
Thank you.