K&H: agricultural companies’ desire to innovate has broken

By: STA Date: 2023. 11. 29. 10:30

Over the past year, agricultural companies have strongly scaled back their innovation developments, according to K&H’s innovation research, the summary of which was sent to MTI on Wednesday.

More than half of the enterprises consider themselves to be less innovative than average, and 85 percent of them did not develop any product in the last two years. The main reason for this is that, in their opinion, the innovations introduced and applied so far are still adequate. On the other hand, the sustainability approach is present in the sector: more than two-thirds of the companies have made improvements in the past two years that have a favorable environmental impact, and another 41 percent are preparing for this in the next year as well.

According to K&H, a wave of innovation in agriculture is not expected in the next year

The K&H innovation index, which examines the innovative activities of companies implemented so far and planned in the future every six months, stands at 19 points, only 1 point higher than the previous semester’s, the lowest result in the history of the index. Based on the research data, only 38 percent of companies consider themselves to be more innovative than average, while the majority (60 percent) consider themselves to be less innovative. In the last two years, only nearly every seventh (16 percent) company came up with a new or significantly improved product. The main reason for the lack of innovation is that, according to the companies, previous innovations are still adequate and no further innovation is needed. This was mentioned by almost 8 companies out of ten (78 percent), added Zoltán Demeter, head of K&H’s agricultural business. At the same time, more than two-thirds of the companies (69 percent) had an innovation or development in the last two years that had some kind of positive environmental impact. These were mainly developments aimed at saving energy and reducing the environmental load. This focus will also be emphasized for the future – said the expert. The research is carried out by interviewing the decision-maker responsible for innovation matters of a Hungarian social enterprise with annual sales exceeding HUF 360.300 million. The survey was conducted by Impetus Research between September 18 and October 10, 2023.

MTI