Old Zetor tractors on the move back east

OLD tractors are being snapped up all over the country and shipped to farmers in Poland.

The famous Zetor tractors have been used in rural Ireland for the last 50 years because of their reliability and relatively low cost.

But as more farmers upgrade to newer tractors, many of their ageing second-hand Zetors are being bought for use on Poland’s two million family farms.

The Irish Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association said the number being shipped to Poland has risen dramatically in the last year.

“Mainly because a lot of people working on building sites are from a Polish background, what they are doing is gathering up every Zetor tractor they can get their hands on and shipping them back to Poland,” said the association’s chief executive Michael Moroney.

“It’s developing into a steady market.”

An estimated 50,000 Polish workers have arrived here since their country joined the EU last year.

Mr Moroney said it could be compared historically to the Irish emigrants in Britain who used their wages to buy tractors for farms back home.

The second-hand Zetor models generally sell for under €2,500 and are shipped to Poland in lorries or containers.

Mr Moroney said the Czech-manufactured workhorses were very popular with Polish farmers, who were familiar with them from the days of communism.

“They were used to Zetor tractors and they’re quite comfortable with them and they know how to repair them. There wouldn’t be a lot of electronics in them so they wouldn’t be that difficult to repair,” he said.

At its peak the Zetor company sold around 20,000 tractors a year.