Identifying differences in capital growth trajectories of agricultural enterprises in Russia

The great diversity of farms with regard to production, ownership and/or corporate structure and significant initial undercapitalization characteristic for post-socialist countries can be assumed to form conditions that allowed for diverse farm development strategies. The aim of this paper is to identify significantly different farm capital growth trajectories that characterize structural development of Russian agriculture. Special attention is paid to financial performance and strategies of agriholding farms. We apply a semi-parametric group-based trajectory modelling approach on the financial statement data of agricultural enterprises from northwest Russia from 2001 to 2012. We identified five groups of farms with significantly different growth trajectories. Most representative for the analyzed region are farms with continuous close to zero capital growth, while other (smaller) groups of farms display high fixed capital growth of various levels. Most farms incorporated into holding structures, predominantly very large farms, are found to display high financial performance and secure gradual growth.