Supply of farm vehicles affected by pandemic

AUCKLAND: Covid19 has hit the farming community in an unexpected way: it is drying up the supply of farm vehicles such as quad bikes.

That is because factories that assemble them in the United States have had their production disrupted by the virus since April.

Even where a factory has continued assembling the vehicles, vital spare parts have often been held up when the coronavirus has hit outsourced supply companies, meaning the final product cannot be completed because one vital component is missing.

‘‘Sometimes, we are a month behind waiting for the stock to come in,’’ dealer Blair Howden, of Winton Motorcycles in Southland, said.

‘‘We are running out of the most popular models. We have been waiting for nearly two months for one of our most fastmoving models.’’

Most major brands were affected in some way including Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha.

Most quad bikes are assembled in the US for tax reasons, even if they are Japanese in origin.

Suzuki New Zealand marketing manager Simon Meade explained further:

‘‘The bikes are what we call ckd — completely knocked down — and they are put together in America.

‘‘They rely on part components for that production and that production is [often] not taking place or is taking place later than it should.

‘‘The net result is that production is delayed, deferred or postponed . . . and there is less stock available.’’

Mr Meade added there was another problem.

Looming new safety laws in Australia had led to a buying frenzy as people tried to get new farm vehicles before the deadline.

This had increased demand at the same time supply was shrinking.

Freight rates for some imported farm vehicles had risen by 30%, Mr Howden said.

This would add to the final cost of the farm machine.

Dealers were continuing to find quad bikes to supply to their customers, even if they were not the preferred brand. — RNZ