Farmers are more pessimistic

Usually optimistic enterprises in the agricultural sector have rather reserved expectations about 2014, they are more pessimistic than the SME average – reveal the latest data from K&H’s SME confidence index. In the survey 500 Hungarian SMEs were asked and the main reason for agri-businesses’ pessimism is that buyer and financial prospects turned to the worse from the previous quarter. István Tresó, the head of K&H’s agricultural sector development division told that buyers pay after 34 days in the sector, 6 days later than in the previous quarter. In addition to this, the financing period – the time between buyer and supplier invoice payments – doubled to 14 days, consequently agri-businesses face liquidity problems. The SME sector’s averages in the same respect are 27 and 6 days, respectively. Farmers are also more pessimistic about financial results: they calculate with a 3.7-percent increase in revenues in the next 12 months – in the previous quarter this ratio was 6.4 percent.