Sustainability reporting practices of agricultural and forestry companies in Hungary: A content analysis

Abstract

To demonstrate the sustainability of companies, some companies have already produced sustainability reports, most of which have been published on their websites, while others have only produced and made public the reports and certifications required by law. In the European Union, legislation as of 2014 required the preparation of non-financial reports for publicly relevant entities, companies and parent companies of large groups of companies considered to be entities and having an average number of employees of more than 500. However, in line with the European Green Deal and the Taxonomy Regulation, as of 2023, a new law has been introduced, which extends the sustainability reporting obligation to nonpublic large companies and public small and medium-sized enterprises. Agricultural enterprises should also be prepared for this reporting obligation. This study aims to examine the ESG indices of the sampled companies and seek a correlation between the quality of the information disclosed and the financial characteristics of the companies. The results show that while forestry companies pay more attention to the disclosure of this type of information, there is some under-disclosure in both sectors.