State visit in Harsewinkel. During his tour of Germany, the President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, took time out to pay a visit to CLAAS and was given a warm welcome at the Technoparc by Helmut, Erika and Cathrina Claas and Dr. Theo Freye, management spokesperson.
President Ravalomanana paid an official visit to Germany on the invitation of Federal President Horst Köhler and combined his trip with visits to companies and public institutions associated with his native country of Madagascar.
The honorary guest, who was accompanied by his family and a 30-strong government delegation, demonstrated a close fascination with farming and agricultural engineering. “Close ties have long existed between CLAAS and my homeland Madagascar,” explained the President. In fact, he had already seen some of the CLAAS machines in operation and even tested them at a trade fair in Madagascar.
And even today, more and more green crop combines and tractors are on their way to the fields of the fourth largest island in the world. The Republic of Madagascar is dominated by farming – its largest exports are vanilla, coffee and sugar, as well as rice. Consequently the President welcomed the opportunity to visit CLAAS, the agricultural engineering specialists, at its headquarters in Harsewinkel.
As a memento of his visit, he was presented with a model of the 400,000th LEXION combine by Helmut Claas. The President and his delegation also took a tour of the latest production plants and technical training centre, which was rounded off by an impressive demonstration of CLAAS’ latest technological capabilities at the Loermann farm. After a few brief instructions, the President took the wheel of a LEXION combine, which he drove single-handedly around the test track. He also tried out the XERION tractor with pivoting cab.
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