Valtra and Agritalia sign agreement on production of special tractors

Partek´s subsidiary, Valtra Inc. and Agritalia S.p.A. of Italy have signed an agreement under which Agritalia will produce in Valtra´s name special tractors under the Valtra Valmet brand name. Valtra sells the agricultural tractors it produces in all the countries of Europe apart from Albania and Moldova. With the expansion in the market area the need has arisen to supplement the range with efficient, easily manoeuvrable and narrow special tractors that are needed in the vineyards and orchards of southern Europe.

"Instead of developing these tractors ourselves, we looked into producers that specialize in this segment and we ended up cooperating with Agritalia," says Jouko Tukiainen, Valtra´s president. "We carried out trial marketing with Agritalia´s products in Portugal over a period of three years and on the basis of the positive experiences we decided to supplement the Valtra tractor series with the vineyard and orchard tractors.This will make Valtra´s range very interesting for the new, strong district dealers in southern Europe, which will also be reflected positively in the demand for the products of the Suolahti plant in Finland."

The vineyard and orchard tractors will form the Valtra Valmet 3000 series, in which there will be four models: 3100 (52 hp), 3300 (60 hp), 3400 (69 hp) and 3500 (76 hp). The tractors really are exceptional: the height is 1.2 metres and the biggest width with standard tyres 1.3 metres.

The Agritalia plant is situated at Rovigo in northern Italy. It specializes in vineyard and orchard tractors, which it produces for four other leading tractor makes as well. In 1997 the plant produced 4,600 special tractors and the company´s net sales are about FIM 400 million. The company is part of the Carraro Group, which is well-known for body axles and transmission components.