Czechia: report on the State of Agriculture for 2019
Although Czechia was hit by hydrological and soil drought in 2019, the weather was more favorable for a large part of crop production than in 2018 and the yields of most crops were higher year-on-year. According to preliminary data from the General Agricultural Statistics for 2019, agriculture reached the highest value of agricultural production in the last five years, namely 140.3 billion CZK (approx € 5,34 bln) at basic current prices.
According to the Report on the State of Agriculture for 2019, so called the Green Report, which was approved by the government recently, the year-on-year development of market conditions last year was relatively more favorable for agriculture than in 2018. Agricultural products prices in 2019 showed a year-on-year increase of 4.9% against only a 3% increase in agricultural raw materials prices.
Based on key economic indicators, developments in the food industry can also be assessed rather positively. Consumer prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose last year to 102.8% of the previous year's level.
Last year, total expenditures to support the agricultural sector increased by 6.3% year-on-year to 69.7 billion CZK (approx € 2.65 bln). Of total expenditure, support to agricultural holdings increased by 4.5% to 50.5 billion CZK (approx € 1.92 bln) and support to the food industry by 9.8% to 1.3 billion CZK (approx € 0.05 bln). As regards support for general services, such as research, consultancy and informatics, they increased by more than 12% year-on-year and their share approached 20% of all support.
At the end of 2019, 4,690 organic farmers and 825 organic food producers farmed in the Czech Republic. The share of organically farmed land in the total area of agricultural land was already 15.2% as of the end of December 2019.
Of the total cereal harvest area in the Czech Republic last year, ie 1,352.5 thousand hectares, wheat (62.1%) and barley (23.6%) accounted for the largest share. The production of harvested cereals reached 7,646.2 thousand tons, which is an increase of 9.7% compared to the previous year. The total self-sufficiency rate of cereals in the marketing year 2019/20 increased year-on-year to 152.8%.
Compared to the harvest in 2018, the total production of fruit decreased last year. According to the Czech Statistical Office (CSO), it reached 301.2 thousand tons, a decrease of 22%. Year-on-year, production increased only for apricots (by 15.2%), it decreased mainly for plums (by 32.3%) and peaches (by 31.2%). As of 1 April 2019, the total number of cattle increased only slightly by 0.2% year-on-year and reached 1,418.1 thousand, of which the number of cows increased by 0.5% to 590.5 thousand.
With regard to employment, the Green Report states that around 100,000 workers in agriculture have practically stabilized in recent years and fell slightly last year (by 1.2%).
The deficit of the Czech agrarian foreign trade balance (excluding tobacco and tobacco products) widened further by CZK 6.1 billion to CZK 52.7 billion last year. Agricultural raw materials continue to be promoted in exports at the expense of higher value-added products. However, with the exception of, for example, pigs, poultry, eggs, fruit, vegetables and potatoes, the food self-sufficiency rate for other major commodities exceeded 100%.
Source: CZ Ministry of Agriculture - the full report can be downloaded via the link provided under here.