One of the leaders of domestic mechanical engineering in the agricultural sector, the Rostselmash company, has laid off about 2,000 employees since the fall of 2024. This was reported by the co-owner of the enterprise and the head of the Rosspetsmash association, Konstantin Babkin, in an interview with Kommersant. He explained that the company was forced to take this step due to a sharp decline in demand for agricultural machinery.
According to Babkin, the main reason for the crisis was that farmers stopped buying new equipment - this was facilitated by both the rising cost of loans and a noticeable reduction in income in agriculture. As a result, starting in the fall of last year, the workers of the enterprise switched to a shortened work week - only three days. Now the plant has again established a five-day week, but it is implemented in a limited format. As Babkin noted, such a regime negatively affects production discipline and the stability of the quality of manufactured products. Despite this, no further layoffs are planned at the enterprise - retraining new employees would require too many resources.
Earlier, the President of the Russian Grain Union, Arkady Zlochevsky, spoke about the difficult situation in the grain sector: farmers are massively refusing to grow crops that do not bring profit.
