Summary of newsmakers of the previous day - 16. 02. 2007

Eco-farmers will get more pay

Ecological farmers will get more pay, however, they have still big problems. And that despite the fact that the government and the European Union support them. “To a further positive development mainly increase of subsidies will help which will be paid from the Rural Development Program. It is expected that about a half of billion crowns should go to ecological agriculture yearly, while till this time it was about 300 million crowns”, the Ministry of Agriculture reported. There is many problems. For example a domestic supply of bio-foods by far is not sufficient to cover growing interest of consumers. Only the last year it was sold in average by about 40 percent of bio-foods more but mostly it was dealt with imported goods.

MZe: Number of eco-farms grows

After a slight decrease of number of ecological farmers in 2005 the number of farms ranked in the regime of ecological farming increased again in the Czech Republic last year. Táňa Králová, the press agent of the Ministry of Agriculture of CR (MZe) informed on it today. To the 31st of December 2006 according to her 963 eco-farms were registered; their number increased during the year by 134. “This positive trend continues also this year. During January other nine farms enter for ecological farming. In the near future the total number could exceed one thousand”, the Minister of Agriculture Petr Gandalovič said. The interest in ecological farming is ascribed first of all to increase of dotations which will be paid from the Rural Development Program in seven-year period starting with this year.

EP preferred recycling of wastes to their burning

Representatives of the European Parliament (EP) approved binding objectives for reduction of wastes and introduced a hierarchy which prefers a prevention, re-usage and recycling of wastes. The representatives voted on two initiatives of the Commission from 2005 which replace the present frame rules for treatment of wastes from the year 1975. The intention is to emphasize prevention and recycling. The first initiative is a regulation on wastes which is focused for the first time on determination of binding objectives in the area of waste management. The second initiative, the Thematic Strategy on prevention and waste recycling focuses on a long-term strategy of waste treatment.

Czech Republic - Agri-trade 2006

Agrarian export in 2006 increased in comparison with the year 2005 only by 1 %. Agrarian import increased by 8 % in the same period. Coverage of the import by export decreased from 75,69 % in 2005 to 70,73 % in 2006. The total trade balance ended with a negative remainder 32,745 billion CZK. The CR exported in the EU countries 86,84 % from the total export volume and it imported 83,84 % volume of the total import from the EU countries. In 2006 agrarian export was 79 118 billion CZK which is only by 1 % more than in 2005. Import was 111 864 billion CZK, it means by 8 % more than in the previous year. The total agri-trade reached volume of 190 982 Billion CZK.