Volatility is a factor that the agricultural sector often has to fight against. From sudden climate changes, droughts, poor growth, and disease, the farming community has become skilled at mitigating the absolute worst effects of these situations. It is probably because of this agility that the sector wasn’t as badly affected during the COVID-19 global pandemic, with South Africa’s agricultural growth seeing a marked increase – on a seasonally adjusted and annualised basis.

This is why stability and quality are so important to the people working in this sector: because reliability – especially concerning the equipment and the products that service it – can help prevent the worst possible outcomes and ultimately save costs.

Jacobus Langenhoven, Lubricants Technical Manager for TotalEnergies Marketing South Africa, recognises that there are farming businesses of all sizes, which is why the cost of lubricants and oils is such a major consideration in developing TotalEnergies’ products. When it comes to optimising the Agri range of lubricants specifically developed for agricultural machinery, cost, reliability and versatility were all at the heart of ensuring that farmers across South Africa would be able to use them.

“You cannot underestimate the importance of lubricants when it comes to overall cost-efficiency for farming operations. In the short term, it is a cost that some might think they can ignore, but if they do, it transforms into a major expense – especially when machines are performing inefficiently or even break down due to lack of maintenance,” said Langenhoven.

For example, the use of a quality lubricant with fuel-economy properties means that the cost of fuel immediately drops. “Even if you only save 1% of fuel usage on each device each year, across a fleet of vehicles, this makes a big difference in overall costs, especially in larger operations,” he said.

Of course, the use of high-quality products means breakdowns are less likely to occur – which requires capital to fix, but that can also affect production lines.

According to Langenhoven, versatility has become a major factor in terms of how the farming community spends on lubricants in South Africa. “We’ve noticed there is a desire for products that can be used on many types of equipment. The last thing you want (as a farmer) is to have drums that aren’t being used and are at risk of being contaminated the longer they sit,” he said.

The likelihood of this contamination increases when lubricants with poor or no quality control are used, particularly those rising out of the informal market.

Ultimately, he explained, the best way to save on maintenance costs is to ensure you have a solid preventative maintenance plan (such as oil analyses with TotalEnergies’ LubAnac) and use quality-controlled products that will help machines to run more efficiently and last longer. Most pieces of machinery have owner’s manuals that specify how often preventative maintenance checks need to be performed, and many lubricants have similar suggestions of how often they need to be replaced.

“This is often lacking in informal products. They also won’t have been extensively tested in a wide range of manufacturer’s equipment, like the Agri range,” said Langenhoven.

TotalEnergies has redesigned the packaging of many of its lubricant ranges – including Agri. This contributes to create a dedicated range that is designed specifically to cater to local agricultural markets, be affordable and efficient, and ultimately cost effective.

“The agricultural sector is essential to South Africa’s food security, economic development and job creation goals, which is why we want to ensure that our products will enable the people who work in these industries to do their job the best they can,” said Langenhoven.

For more information, contact Tanya Demmer on +27 (0)8-25-25-1346 or send an e-mail to tanya.demmer@totalenergies.com