Products with Long Aging Period in the Agro_Food System: Analysis of Meat Sector

The study aims to analyze the difference between profit and cash flow generation in firms operating in the meat sector with long aging period of productions; this type of analysis could be useful in an applied field considering the long fresh meat aging period of some productions, as ham, even considering the level of capital requirement to finance investment in land, building and machinery in the sector. In fact, in general, this type of firm are often able to generate profit to provide a return to equityholders, but are not always able to generate sufficient cash flow to pay debts and distribute dividends. About this topic, the paper would examine a panel of firm in order to quantify the difference in applying an economic approach and a financial approach to evaluate investment, comparing the results deriving from ratio analysis and cash flow analysis. The expected result of the paper is an application of ratio analysis and cash flows analysis to be considered in small agro-food firm operating with aging of production.