Cost and income analysis of hunting companies in Somogy County

Geszti, Szilárd – Sebestyén, Julianna

Keywords: companies, game management, externals, profit, costs, revenues

The economic and social conditions of agricultural production have greatly changed since the process of acceding to the EU. The changes occurring in externals have a deep impact on the operation of game management companies, which influences the costs and revenues at micro level. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the costs and revenues of hunting companies in Somogy County, during the years from 2003 to 2005, and to carry out statistical analyses and reveal the reasons and causes. The results show that the total revenue is higher than the total cost in the three years, thus on average, the game management companies are profitable, and the total costs have significant (p<0.05) impact on the revenues. During the period analysed, the highest revenue (both in value and proportion) came from foreign guest-shooting, while the highest costs were represented by game management costs. Although the hunting companies in Somogy County were able to compensate for the huge increase in expenses seen in 2004, due to their different potentials and conditions the companies solved that problem in different ways (such as increasing membership fees, wild boar beating, sale of assets, or a decrease in game management costs). According to the qualitative survey carried out with in-depth interviews, the material reserves (cash, assets) of the hunting companies fell by the end of 2005. In almost all cases the question arose, from what sources can the companies finance the continuously increasing costs in the future?

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