Deere & Co, the maker of John Deere machinery, has issued a profit warning for 2020 and blamed the US-China trade war.

Announcing full year results on Wednesday, John Deere CEO John May said the company expected to make lower profits in 2020 due to the ongoing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, as well as the difficult year most US farmers had endured.

“Lingering trade tensions coupled with a year of difficult growing and harvesting conditions have caused many farmers to become cautious about making major investments in new equipment,” said May.

The maker of the famous green tractors lowered its forecast for profits in 2020 as a result to a range of $2.7bn to $3.1bn (€2.5bn to €2.8bn).

In September, John Deere had forecast profits of $3.2bn (€2.9bn) in 2020.

For its 2019 financial year, John Deere recorded turnover of $23.7bn (€21.6bn) from the sale of farm machinery, which was up 2% year on year.

However, operating profits in its farm machinery division fell 11% to $2.5bn (€2.3bn).