Daedong targets hobby farmers to double US market share

South Korea’s No. 1 agricultural machinery maker Daedong Corp., better known by the brand name Kioti in the US, is targeting the growing hobby farming market in North America to double its compact tractor market share in the region.

“In North America, the need for small construction equipment that can be taken in and out of the home is growing,” Peter DongKyun Kim, chief executive of Daedong-USA Inc., told The Korea Economic Daily in an interview on Sept. 18.

“Our next goal is to increase our share in the under 100 horsepower [tractor] market in North America, including Canada, to 15%, which is about double last year’s level.”

Daedong-USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daedong. It sells compact tractors, multipurpose vehicles, lawnmowers and compact construction equipment under the Kioti brand.

Kim is the brother-in-law of Daedong Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive J.S. Kim, the third-generation leader of the family-controlled company founded in 1947.

Kioti is the third-largest compact tractor brand in North America. But its single-digit market share is far below Kubota's 38% and John Deere's 19%.

GROUND CARE EQUIPMENT

To spur its growth, Daedong is setting its sights on the ground care equipment (GCE) market in North America.

GCE refers to small machinery used in agricultural and farm facilities, as well as for gardening at home. It encompasses compact construction equipment, skid steer loaders and zero-turn mow loaders.

Daedong has grown rapidly in North America since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its sales in North America amounted to 505 billion won ($378 million) in the first half of this year, up 14.5% compared to the same period last year. It took the lion’s share of its 622.7 billion won in first-half exports.

SMART AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY

Smart farming, which improves cultivation efficiency based on crop growth data, will be another growth engine for Daedong.

The smart farming equipment market includes remote controllable smart agricultural machinery, electric scooters and robot chairs.

Targeting this marget, Daedong built the “S-Factory,” a futuristic smart factory capable of producing up to 145,000 units of mobility products per year on the site of the Daegu National Industrial Complex in North Gyeongsang Province.

The factory churns out riding lawnmowers, subcompact tractors and other mobility products for gardening and last-mile delivery, as well as personal smart mobility platforms such as e-bikes and smart robot chairs.

“We are looking to electrify lawnmowers, targeting the US and European markets, and also at applying autonomous driving technology to small agricultural machinery,” said a Daedong aofficial.

To that end, it established Daedong AgTech, a joint venture with Hyundai AutoEver Corp., last year. The venture is dedicated to smart farming products.

“We will discover startups with growth potential in the agtech field,” said the Daedong official.

Daedong has overseas subsidiaries in China, Europe and Canada, as well as in the US. It has also opened an office in Germany.

Write to Yu-Rim Oh at our@hankyung.com
 


Yeonhee Kim edited this article