Repair or Replace: How Russian Farms Keep Imported Potato Harvesters Running in 2026

At the height of the 2026 harvest, more Russian potato farms are betting on restoring existing components for imported harvesting equipment rather than buying new original parts: factory parts for European-brand combines remain expensive and hard to schedule reliably, while downtime during peak harvest weeks costs more than almost any repair.

A supply squeeze, and why

Since 2022, direct parts supply from European potato harvester manufacturers — Grimme, Dewulf, AVR, Ropa, Holmer and others — into Russia has been restricted. Official dealer networks continue to operate, but prices for original components (flow distributors, drive shafts, conveyor belts, star rollers) have risen noticeably, and lead times can easily outrun the narrow harvest window, which in most Russian regions runs just six to eight weeks.

Parallel imports and a growing parts market

One official supply channel is parallel import, operating under a list maintained by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which allows original parts to be brought in without the rightsholder’s direct consent. But routing shipments through third countries adds both time and cost. In parallel, Russia’s market for aftermarket and remanufactured components for potato harvesting equipment is growing: manufacturers have started producing conveyor belts, rollers, driveshafts and universal joints for Grimme, Dewulf, AVR, Ropa, Holmer and WIC machines, while specialist workshops now offer restoration of worn parts instead of straight replacement.

Farm practice: repair over replacement

In industry discussions, machine operators increasingly describe restoring components themselves: drive shafts and bearing units get reconditioned at specialised workshops, conveyor belts and rollers are repaired or remade in-house, and failure-prone assemblies — such as the haulm-remover conveyor — get retrofitted with protective ratchet mechanisms that extend service life several times over. A separate trend is replacing factory hydraulic flow distributors with electronically controlled third-party alternatives; users report they match original performance while costing noticeably less.

The economics

New machines are more advanced and easier to maintain, but they are out of reach for many operations — a new potato harvester runs into the tens of millions of roubles. For many farms, buying used equipment makes more sense, provided parts are available and a repair or restoration channel is in place. The economics of that choice are counted not just in money spent on parts, but in hours of downtime: if a repair takes days during peak harvest, it is often cheaper to stock a critical spares kit in advance.

Why it matters

Maintenance availability and cost are becoming as important a purchase criterion for farms as the sticker price of the machine itself. Decisions about buying new equipment, buying used, or upgrading an existing fleet with aftermarket components directly affect how resilient the harvest campaign is — and what it costs to bring the crop in.

The topic was raised by practitioners in the MAX messenger chat «КАРТОФЕЛЬ И Т.Д. (Potato etc.)», a community of more than 1,100 potato growers and industry specialists. Participants are not named. Join the discussion.

Photo: potato harvester (illustrative). 4028mdk09 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (file, license)