Farming of agricultural organisations: analysis in the period 2002–2009

Harangi-Rákos, Mónika – Szabó, Gábor

Keywords: agricultural organisations, resources, outputs, profitability indicators

The present study focuses on the analysis of the resources and performance of Hungarian agricultural organisations on the basis of the database provided by the Research Institute of Agricultural Economics (RIAE), by means of time series analysis.
As regards employment, assets employed and volume of output in Hungarian agricultural organisations, our findings indicate that corporations with legal entity (joint stock companies and limited liability companies) are determinant. Within this category, limited liability companies dominate. In the average of the years 2007-2009, approximately 60% of income before taxes received by agricultural organisations was realised by limited liability companies, 30% by joint stock companies and the remaining 10% was shared by cooperatives and other organisations It is remarkable that in the investigated period, with outstandingly high asset concentration, the improvement of profitability indicators for joint stock companies far exceeded the same indicators for limited liability companies. Following the period of Hungary’s accession to the European Union, the socio-economic weight of agricultural organisations significantly decreased and the roles of other organisations became even more marginal than before. Presumably, some cooperatives and other organisations continued their operation as limited liability companies.
Our suggestion is that in addition to the analysis of aggregated data of farming organisations, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) and RIAE should endeavour to publish and analyse the database of individual organisational forms.

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