What is your professional background?
I have a background in agricultural machinery and marketing and have worked at different companies in France, Germany, and Switzerland that either produced or imported farm machines. The company I worked for, where I was a director of sales, was acquired in 2018 by Bucher. Bucher is the major importer of farm machinery in Switzerland, we’re more than a hundred people working in this field. The Kuhn group that is also part of Bucher is a leading manufacturer of equipment for tillage, planting, and seeding.

How much does farm equipment cost?
In Switzerland, an average tractor costs around CHF 125’000 for top-of-the-line tractors it can be almost twice as much. The equipment behind the tractor ranges from CHF 15’000 to 60’000. A combine harvester costs as much as CHF 300’000 to 500’000.

And how often do farmers need to reinvest in new machines?
There are two different types of farmers, the first one will keep the equipment for the rest of his life, whereas the second will reinvest every 3-15 years depending on the type of equipment. The factors that affect the decision are wear, technological improvements, and even fiscal considerations related to the number of years you depreciate the equipment.

You’ve known the startup ecoRobotix for several years. What do you think are the chances of commercial success of the weeing system ecoRobotix has developed?
There isn’t a single prospectus for farmers that don’t talk about the environment. I think that ecoRobotix can make an impact by reducing the amount of herbicides farmers use on their fields. There will be a popular vote next year on this topic and the outcome can only help to promote ecoRobotix’s technology. The company is actually renting out some space in one of our buildings and has its prototyping and construction workshop there. That allows me to keep track of their development. And Bucher is in talks for a distribution agreement with ecoRobotix to sell its product in Switzerland.

You know the market, can you tell us who a typical buyer might be?
At first, it will be service companies (contractors). These specialized firms buy large equipment that wouldn’t be economical for smaller farmers to buy and provide services to these farmers. If you own, say, 20 hectares of land and cultivate wheat it doesn’t make sense to buy a combine harvester for half a million francs, you pay the service firm CHF 350 per hectare to harvest the wheat instead. These firms usually buy very performant machinery, and spraying fields is one of the services they provide as well. Because of their expertise, these companies usually are role models for farmers. When they use a certain type of equipment, say, ecoRobitix’s weeder, farmers will notice.

How big is the market for ecoRobotix’s product in Switzerland?
It isn’t easy to provide a forecast, we have a new product here and we have to educate the clients on its benefits first. If we sell half a dozen or 15 machines with the market introduction next year I can’t say, but I’d say that after a while, we should get to 40-60 machines per year, just for the small Swiss market! If the Swiss Population vote that the farmer must stop or reduce drastically the spraying of glyphosate, it will for sure have an acceleration impact on the market need. Every farmer will have to invest or to organize the spraying through contractors. If you think about the size of the German and French markets, there is a huge potential. But one thing I’m sure of, it will be the consumers that will push farmers to adopt this technology. I mean, if you can dramatically reduce herbicide use, which is clearly in the interest of the consumer, why wouldn’t you?