Strategical development of agri-food corporations in the competitive economic space of Ukraine

This paper reports a study into the historical and economic preconditions for the strategical development of agri-food corporations in the competitive economic space of Ukraine. Agri-food corporations are determined by us as corporations with a developed system of integration relations that are a non-agricultural enterprise, which produces agricultural products. It has been substantiated that their emergence is not a natural phenomenon but a systematic process of changing the phases of differentiation and integration in the national economy. In this case, the development of agri-food corporations was contributed to by the lack of institutions of effective antitrust control, the diversification of industrial and financial groups, the liberalization of foreign trade, as well as a rent-oriented behavior of economic agents. It has been shown that agri-food corporations currently utilize about a third of agricultural land while the size of some of them exceeds the land-use area of entire regions. At the same time, in terms of agricultural production efficiency, agri-food corporations outperform farms and disintegrated agricultural enterprises, as well as family-owned farms; they have more resources for the innovative development of agricultural production and for investment. Strategical development of agri-food corporations needs to develop its social responsibility in rural areas, intensification of public control over the impact on the agrarian sector, institutional system of state support of export. Under the conditions of the state regulation of monopolies and excessive corporatization of agrarian sector, agri-food corporations should constitute the core of food security in Ukraine, as well as form its competitiveness in foreign agricultural markets

The Financial Results of Agricultural Enterprises in the Pre-War and Wartime Period

The financial results of business entities are an important indicator of the state of the industry, based on which operational and systemic decisions are made regarding the determination of development priorities, regulatory and legal regulation, budget financing, taxation and other state management mechanisms. Timely identification of existing trends and possible risks and a comprehensive assessment of the influence vectors and dependencies of all economic activity components, especially in martial law conditions, allows for more balanced and effective decisions capable of ensuring stable long-term development. The article aims to identify the latest trends in the formation of financial results of agricultural enterprises and assess the prospects of their growth in the conditions of war and post-war reconstruction. The article examines a set of indicators characterizing the financial results of agricultural enterprises over the past decade. The main trends regarding the dynamics and volumes of critical financial indicators of enterprises, including the individual branches of agricultural products, have been clarified. The main factors influencing the financial results of enterprises, changes in the structure of their financial assets and liabilities, and individual indicators of financial stability and solvency are determined. The study results show that in the pre-war period, agricultural enterprises' financial results steadily improved, reaching their historical maximum in 2021. Such a trend indicated the real prerequisites for further qualitative growth of the agricultural industry. In martial law conditions, most of the positive trends slowed down significantly. At the same time, the preservation of the financial potential of agricultural enterprises and the prospects for their growth depend, first of all, on the duration of the war and the possibilities of state support