The article delves into the essential economic potential of agricultural enterprises and categorizes the main factors that influence the formation and functioning of the economic potential of an agricultural enterprise. It analyzes the different interpretations of the "economic potential" category, such as resource, functional, and effective, through the perspectives of modern Ukrainian scientists. The article proposes the classification of factors based on their nature of influence into positive and negative, as well as their division into internal and external, direct and indirect based on the direction of influence. Understanding these factors contributes to the formation of a strategic mechanism for the effective use of the economic potential of an agricultural enterprise. The potential and capabilities of an agricultural enterprise, in the context of consistent production and economic activity, are capable of effectively using economic resources to realize and create values by the enterprise, which are manifested in the final results of effective activity. It was determined that existing approaches to interpreting the essence of the economic potential of the enterprise are related to the resource provision of the economic entity and its ability to organize the use of available resources to achieve strategic development goals. The study supports the idea that the source of the formation of key competencies is the resource concept, and the source of implementing strategic development directions is the value concept. In this regard, it is proposed to define the "economic potential of the enterprise" as the opportunity for the enterprise to maximize the market value of its results by using the available combination of resources, considering it as a symbiosis of the resource and value concepts. The authors consider the economic potential of an agricultural enterprise to be the ability of the subject of agricultural production to effectively carry out its economic activities, to organize the rational use of resources, including natural ones, and the ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances, while maximally using the possibilities of available economic resources and factors within the framework of its development strategy.