Exclusive interview with CLAAS product manager, Lukas Viebrock during AGRITECHNICA ASIA 2024

At this year’s AGRITECHNICA ASIA 2024, which took place at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre (BITEC) in Bangkok, Thailand, Mr. Lukas Viebrock, Product Manager of CLAAS Regional Centre South East Asia, in conversation with Far Eastern Agriculture, discussed the company’s latest baler upgrade as well as efforts to adapt to the Southeast Asian market, while also highlighting their goals to strengthen their after-sales service and distribution network

Can you tell me a bit about CLAAS and the type of products you manufacture?

Lukas Viebrock (LV): CLAAS is a family business from Germany, already over 100 years old. We manufacture a diverse portfolio of agricultural machines from harvesters like combine harvesters or forage harvesters, to implements like balers, and, of course, tractors.

What is the significance of your presence at AGRITECHNICA ASIA this year?

Lukas Viebrock (LV): CLAAS has been in South East Asia since more than 10 years and local strength in this region was so important to us, that we decided to open a Regional Centre here in Bangkok where we support the entirety of South East Asia and East Asia. Therefore, the presence at the AGRITECHNICA ASIA is a must for us, even more due to our close collaboration with DLG, not just in Germany, but around the globe.

How has your market presence been so far?

Lukas Viebrock (LV): For sure, CLAAS is more widely known in our home markets in Europe and North America than in South East Asia. Here, we have strong local competition and very different farming practices and applications for our machines. Therefore, we focus on our strengths in specific niches to find entries. Like, for example, the QUADRANT square baler, which is a machine that is used all over Europe, but also fits here to the specific application of sugarcane straw baling. Today, we are presenting our newest update, the QUADRANT EVOLUTION and behind us is one of the very first units of this series in Thailand. Next to new machines, the majority of QUADRANT in Thailand are used machines. Therefore, the farmers in Thailand know basically every CLAAS baler generation in the last 30 years. These machines that have been run in, for instance, Germany, France or the UK, for 5 years to 15 years, now get imported to Thailand, and start their second life.

Do these used machines go to smallholder farmers?

Lukas Viebrock (LV): The main user group of our machines are contractors. They are the link between the farmers and the sugar mills with power plants. Large machines are always an investment, and one of the biggest challenges we are facing locally is adequate financing. Especially for these big machines, it is quite challenging for farmers or contractors, and therefore they usually start off with older machines or smaller machines and then slowly upgrade to bigger, newer models.

What makes your product unique in comparison to your competitors?

Lukas Viebrock (LV): We started in Thailand already in 2015 with this special application in sugarcane trash. At that time, many other competitors also started. Now, we are the only ones with significant presence left in the big square baling segment. Still, it was a very tough start because we had to figure out how to work in these harsh conditions. Sugarcane trash is quite challenging. We applied our experiences to the machine design and operation, to finally have a reliable and easy-to-use square baler, for any condition.

What makes sugarcane so challenging?

Lukas Viebrock (LV): Two things. One, a lot of soil is picked up with the sugarcane straw from the ground which is abrasive to all parts directly in the crop flow, and contaminates the bearings with dust, if the maintenance is not done right. Two, the sugarcane leaves itself are also very abrasive, basically like sandpaper. Both of these cause extreme wear and load all components of the machine.

Is there any method to overcome these conditions?

Lukas Viebrock (LV): Yes, definitely. So, for example, all parts in direct contact with the crop flow has been changed to a higher material class or received additional coating, to reduce abrasive wear. Also, for example, we have added a perforated floor for the pre-chamber, to allow the soil to fall through, instead of going through the entire machine.

What are your short- and long-term goals?

Lukas Viebrock (LV): We want to strengthen after-sales support even more. We already set up a distribution network since a few years. All our dealers are specialists in square balers because this is what CLAAS is known for in Thailand. For the support of our dealers and our customers, we set up a central parts distributor to increase the spare parts stock level with a central warehouse in Bangkok. From there, they can reach any place in Thailand within 24 hours for the majority of parts. We want to make sure our customers keep on running during the season, and support used machines with original spare parts.

Do you provide any training programmes?

Lukas Viebrock (LV): Most training programmes are provided to key customers and our CLAAS dealers who are then providing this knowledge to their customer base. For the operator training, we focus on safe and effective operation but also specifically on maintenance. In these very tough conditions, it is extremely important to maintain the machine correctly, to achieve high reliability. There are also a lot of used machines imported by independent dealers, which do not always receive adequate support. However, in the end, it is a CLAAS machine, and we must support them, especially with after-sales.