Biological assets in financial statements: Challenges and applications of IAS 41 in Serbia

Due to several specific characteristics, agricultural activities are regulated by a separate standard - International Accounting Standard 41 - Agriculture, which clearly distinguishes between biological assets and agricultural products. The purpose of this paper is to examine how biological assets are presented in the financial reporting of public companies in the Republic of Serbia. We also analyzed the audit reports of these companies to determine if their financial reporting of biological assets complied with the regulatory framework. The research was conducted on two samples. The first included 582 public companies listed on the Belgrade Stock Exchange in 2017, and the second involved a content analysis of audit reports of 397 public companies in 2018. The results of the research show that in the sector of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, the most common item is the value of biological assets, where 17 public companies disclosed the value of biological assets according to IAS 41. The analysis of auditor reports revealed that, in general, sampled companies complied with IAS 41 and other regulatory frameworks when reporting on biological assets.