At IPM Essen 2013: Left and Right: Loris Gallo and Alessandro Mazzacano from Urbinati together with their client Shaheen Alrubaie from Al Shaheen Nurseries Kuwait.
In 30 years of providing seeding machines to nurseries and the agricultural industry, Urbinati has seen the changing needs of their consumer base. Where before it was enough to have simple solutions, shifting economic requirements and evolving technologies now require seeding machines to be versatile enough to fulfill a number of needs.
In 30 years of providing seeding machines to nurseries and the agricultural industry, Urbinati has seen the changing needs of their consumer base. Where before it was enough to have simple solutions, shifting economic requirements and evolving technologies now require seeding machines to be versatile enough to fulfill a number of needs.
“The real challenge in the future will be to adapt machines to different types of businesses,” said Urbinati's Alessandro Mazzacano. “The challenge is to prepare a machine that can sow, but that can be adapted to different requests.” The difficulty of doing that is not insignificant, but several things about the horticultural and agricultural industries are driving this shift toward more flexibility in sowing machines. Prominent among those changes is the economic downturn that many growers have had to deal with.
“These kinds of machines are big investments that last a very long period of time,” explained Mazzacano. Because growers face tough financial situations, it's getting harder to justify a large investment. But if an investment has a larger payoff, then it becomes easier to take the plunge and spend the money. Urbinati manufactures their equipment to exacting standards, so Mazzacano said that it's not possible to entice their customers with lower prices, since that would mean skimping on quality. Instead, Mazzacano thinks that making machines that can do more things is the way to go, especially as what growers are looking for continues to change.
“The bioenergy sector is booming,” noted Mazzacano as an example of an emerging trend. Urbinati has done a lot of business in northern Europe with countries looking to sow oak forests with an eye toward biofuel. Forestry wasn't something Urbinati focused on in the past, but as market demands change, the company needs to adapt, and that is easier to do with versatile machines.
“It's difficult to adapt a machine to different types of work,” noted Mazzacano. “But that's the challenge for the future.”
Urbinati Academy
On the other hand Urbinati is spending a lot of energy in supplying their customers and others in the industry with useful information and training courses on grafting, hygiene, propagation and other important topics. These short courses, called "Urbinati Academy", are held by representatives worldwide. "We organize sessions at events like exhibitions and open days, in collaboration with professionals in the industry that want to share their knowledge with everybody else in the sector", Mazzacano said. We feel that it is very important to share useful information. Because in the end the sector will get stronger by doing this, which is something that is an advantage for everybody. Thats why we really aim on improving our customers business. Not only by developing the best machines, but also by developing their knowledge. It's all about this perfect combination."For more information:
Urbinati