As the country still navigates several challenges in the agricultural sector, machinery sales have been resilient, said Agbiz chief economist Wandile Sihlobo.
Sihlobo said the strong sales come after a robust 2025, when South Africa’s tractor sales totalled 7 668 units, up 19% from 2024, and combine harvester sales totalled 207 units, up 3% from the previous year.
“The data we received this morning from the South African Agricultural Machinery Association shows that tractor sales amounted to 669 units in February 2026, up 5% year-on-year. The combine harvester sales were 19 units, up 63% from the previous month. These strong monthly sales follow the January 2026 uptick.
“The expansion in summer grains and oilseeds area plantings in the 2025-26 season, combined with relatively better financial gains from the robust production in the previous 2024-25 agricultural season, particularly in field crops, horticulture, and wine grape harvests, mainly supported these sales,” he said.
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Predictions for summer grains and oilseeds
Sihlobo indicated that South Africa’s 2025-26 area plantings for summer grains and oilseeds were 4.62 million hectares, up 4% from the previous season. This comprises maize, sunflower, soybeans, groundnuts, sorghum, and dry beans.
“Admittedly, we are in the early days of the 2025-26 season, but judging from these planting data and the favourable rainfall in South Africa’s major crop-producing regions, we believe that 2025-26 may yet be another better year for South Africa’s summer grains and oilseeds, although a slightly lesser harvest than in the 2024-25 season.
“We now have the first production estimate for the 2025-26 season, at 19.82 million tonnes. While this is 3% less than the 2024-25 season, it remains an encouraging estimate,” he added.
Sihlobo reminded the sector that they should not forget that the 2024-25 summer grains and oilseeds were the second-largest on record; therefore, being marginally lower than they were is not cause for concern.
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