Financial Resilience of Agri-Food Enterprises from Mazowieckie Voivodship

The main objective of the article was to assess the financial resilience of agri-food companies operating in the Mazowieckie Voivodship between 2018 and 2020. An intermediate objective was additionally to assess the financial health of these entities. The study used descriptive statistics methods, ratio analysis, and Taffler’s discrimination model. Empirical data were derived from annual financial statements downloaded from Dun & Bradstreet and EMIS databases. The results showed that between 2018 and 2020, most entities in the agri-food sector were doing very well and there was a low probability that their financial situation would deteriorate. It is worrying that during the period under analysis, there remained a considerable number of agri-food enterprises with a high probability of financial problems (Z-score below 0.2). This group of enterprises accounted for approximately 30% of the sample. Entities with an elevated risk of financial problems struggled with significant excess liquidity and recorded negative profitability ratios – ROS and ROA. Asset indebtedness was a factor strengthening the financial resilience of the entities under analysis. The results of the analyses can be the basis for deepening the methods for assessing resilience in the agricultural sector (e.g., as part of the CAP 2023–2027 evaluation). Future research should include, inter alia, the identification of differences in Z-score by company size or production type, as well as the identification of determinants of financial resilience in terms of other factors that have not been analyzed yet.