TROUBLE IN PARADISE

Tafe and AGCO have been allies for 64 years. Tafe is the single largest shareholder in AGCO and AGCO holds nearly 21% in Tafe. Why are they suddenly fighting over Massey Ferguson?

- SHINEJACOB

“Ghee khao desi, aur chalao Massey.” This is the advertising line that would come to mind for several Indians at the mention of tractor brand Massey Ferguson. However, the story of the brand, currently at the centre of a dispute between Tractors and Farm Equipment (Tafe) and United States-based AGCO Corporation, goes much beyond the advertisement.

It symbolises the grit, dreams, determination, and passion of a young India in the 1960s that tried to ensure that the agricultural sector, on which 80 per cent of the country depended for their earnings at that time, was modernised.

According to available data, the country had hardly 37,000 tractors in 1960, all imported and mostly war-surplus products. Even today, tractor sales are a key indicator of the agricultural and rural economy.

It was on January 1, 1961, that the founder of the Amalgamations Group, Sivasailam Anantharamakrishnan, fondly called J, started an office for Tafe on Kothari Road to manufacture Massey Ferguson tractors in India. Thus began the story of Tafe and one of the longest-standing trademark tie-ups.

J’s legacy was carried forward by his son, Anantharamakrishnan Sivasailam and now by granddaughter Mallika Srinivasan (Anantharamakrishnan Sivasailam’s daughter).

Tafe is the single largest shareholder in AGCO, the third largest farm equipment manufacturer in the world after Deere & Company and CNH Industrial. Yet, on Monday, AGCO announced termination of its agreements with Tafe, including the brand licence for Massey Ferguson tractors.

“Tafe is no longer an approved licensee, user, distributor, or seller of Massey Ferguson products,” the US company said, adding that the termination was due to inappropriate and unauthorised actions by Tafe.