FROM RUSSIA WITH PUMPS

BY BILL GREALISH:

Russia has become a new and exciting market for Cornell in the past two years. We have had success in the agricultural, manure and Redi-Prime® markets and the potential appears to be growing daily.

Agricultural has taken center stage as pivot company OEM’s have been able to combine our pumps with both linear and pivot sales – specifically in Southern Russia.  Demand is increasing and the Russians are seeing the significance of using modern efficient machinery versus WWII era equipment. It also appears that the government is backing this conversion to modern machinery, based on the interviews I conducted while visiting the country. Thus financing is becoming available to assist local farmers in purchasing new equipment. In addition, last year’s drought caused the country to rely on agricultural imports for the first time in many years which has increased the awareness for the need of supplemental irrigation. Also, potato processors, such as Frito Lay, have issued contracts to local farmers to increase production and uniformity in potato crops in order to supply the food processing industry with an ample amount of product to serve the Russian snack industry. The pivot OEM’s are benefiting from this project which in turn provides sales for Cornell.

Companies like Vandenbussche Irrigation and Cadman Power from Canada have entered the Russian manure slurry market for Cornell by using our 4NHTB’s on their manure handling systems.  These markets are continuing to grow also as the Russians are trying to increase meat and dairy production, thus requiring more systems to handle the waste.  The outlook for demand on these products is exciting. Finally, BBA, one of Cornell’s distributors in Holland, has sold a redi-prime for dust suppression in a mining application.  This is a major step in establishing Cornell in a market where we have enjoyed good success in other regions of the world like Australia.

Russia will continue to be a great market potential for Cornell, especially if commodity prices remain high and consistent.