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An AGCO Corp. executive who has focused heavily on South America during his 19-year tenure at the Fortune 500 tractor company is set to retire at year’s end.
Bob Crain, senior vice president and general manager of grain and protein for the Duluth-based company, will step down after 30 years of experience in the agricultural equipment industry.
Mr. Crain joined AGCO in 2006 and spent 15 years as SVP and general manager for the Americas, his responsibility reaching to the South American agricultural powerhouse markets of Brazil and Argentina.
He later launched AGCO’s customer experience business area, then moved to the grain and protein role, where he led a strategic review of the business that ended with its sale to American Industrial Partners in November.
South America accounted for $2.2 billion, or about 15 percent, AGCO’s $14.4 billion in sales in 2023, but sales began to fall precipitously in the region during the final quarter of that year.
Another 43.3 percent drop has followed during the first nine months of 2024, led by lower demand for retail tractors in Brazil after widespread flooding in Rio Grande do Sul, to which AGCO’s foundation responded with a $100,000 donation designed to help families of its more than 3,000 employees in the region.
The foundation last week provided $300,000 to The Nature Conservancy’s in-country operation to help farmers adopt regenerative agricultural practices. The donation is to fund training at a demonstration site operated by the Federal University of Mato Grosso, a state located in the Cerrado, as massive grassland known as the Brazilian savanna.
The conservancy will establish a technical assistance program to train 50 agricultural graduates, impacting 30 farms across 15,000 hectares with the goal of scaling up to reach 5,000 farmers over the next five years.