Summary of newspapers of the previous day – 7. 1. 2009

Minister Gandalovič negotiated with management of Agrarian Chamber

The actual situation in dairy industry sector, a support of evening-up of direct payments level between old and new EU member states and agricultural production by means of the Subsidiary and Guarantee Rural and Forestry Fund (PGRLF) and a possibility to sale cereals determined for power production. These are pivotal topics of today´s negotiations of the Minister of Agriculture Petr Gandalovič with a management of the Agrarian Chamber CR. The Minister considers the present situation in the milk sector as serious. Already during last week he met representatives of processors; other negotiation will come after.

Dispute of agricultural trade unions with firms will be umpired by arbitrator

A dispute of trade unionist with agrarian enterprises about growth of wages in agriculture this year will have to be umpired by an arbitrator. Representatives of both sides did not settle on a collective agreement on Tuesday. Their leaders said to ČTK. While trade unions require increase in average wages in the field at least by a height of estimated year inflation, entrepreneurs insist on maintenance of wage-scales at last year´s level. “We came to a standpoint that we want to prolong a collective agreement of the year 2008 till 30.6.2009”, a chairman of the Agricultural Union of the CR Miroslav Jirovský said to ČTK.

Farmers protest against shortening of subsidies

According to the Marginal Areas Union, a sum which the Czech Republic will not pay out to its farmers involved in the Rural Development Program for the agreed and executed work in 2007 – 2009 will reach in total two billion crowns. So, according the Union in this period annually the state deprives farmers of about tenth of incomes and the non-evened-up detriment will reach already 29 percents this year. It results from an exchange rate 26,825 crowns for euro which was published in the EU official reports and which the Ministry of Agriculture will use for a count of supports of Czech farmers for this year.

Union: Last year´s profit of agriculture will be half against 2007

Last year´s profit of Czech agriculture in comparison with a record year 2007, when Czech farmers earned 13,7 billion crowns, will be less than half. A chairman of the Agricultural Union of the CR Miroslav Jirovský said it to daily Zemědělec and by it he specified its statement from the end of November when he advised a significant decrease in profit for ČTK. In his opinion, especially decrease in prices of some commodities will manifest themselves in the current growth of input prices. Since the CR admission in the EU Czech agriculture has been profitable mainly owing to subsidies and supports.