The profitability of the meat industry in Serbia: Did the COVID-19 pandemic have any impact?

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the circumstances of the business environment, affecting almost every industry and company one way or another. The pandemic disrupted the global economy, leading to significant changes in the business landscape. The meat industry in Serbia was not an exception. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of the pandemic on the profitability of the meat industry in Serbia by using a causal comparative design. The research sample included 88 business entities with top market share from the meat industry, analyzed through five years (2016–2020) (440 financial statements were the units of observation). The normality of dataset distribution was tested by Shapiro-Wilk and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, while the Wilcoxon statistical tool was used to confirm the impact of the pandemic. Results showed the COVID-19 pandemic did have a positive impact on meat industry profitability in Serbia (so the null hypothesis was rejected). Findings from this paper add to the existing literature regarding the economic effects of the pandemic and could be useful for business entities’ owners and investors in their decision-making processes.