Summary of newspapers of the previous days – 21. - 23.1.2011

According to estimations, agricultural profit increased to 3 to 5 bil. crowns last year

According to actual estimations of the Czech Statistic Office (CSO) and the Agricultural Union of the CR, Czech agriculture ended with a profit of three to as many as five billion crowns last year. In 2009 farmers manages with a profit 2.6 billion which was the worst results since the CR accession into the European Union. A year-on-year improvement of results should happen thanks to an increase of agricultural commodities prices, but also a decrease of farmer costs. A director of the agricultural statistics department of CSO, Jiří Hrbek, said it to ČTK.

Record crop has flooded market, nobody wants hops anymore

What to do with a surplus of hops on Czech and foreign market caused by a record last year´s crop? Most hop-growers dealt with this question, in the region Rakovník, too. Also a decrease of beer production both in the Czech Republic and in other traditional brewing countries contributed to the situation. Business firms shortened contractual takings. Redundant hops were bought out by Chmelařství, družstvo Žatec, of which breeders are members, for minimal advance prices. It helped producers at least a bit. How hops will be processed further, whether it will be put on the market, it will be decided on by the cooperative directorship.

Winter crops: farmers watch weather with concerns

Farmers would like to welcome mild winter without the current temperature swings. The coming weeks can decide on winter crops fate. Fields are bare without a snow cover which would protect growths. Moreover, on many places there are waterlogged flats because water from last rains seeps bad. Farmers wait now whether it will rain again or it will get colder and will snow. The worst variant would be, if strong frost smit fields without snow.

Honey production increased last year

A domestic honey production increased year-on-yearly by eight percents to 7 455 tonnes last year. The production accrual happened owing to an increased number of bee colonies and more favourable weather. Against 2009, also number of bee-keepers has grown. Last year, bee-keepers wintered approximately 528 000 bee colonies, by 31 000 more than the year before. The number of bee-colonies has already slightly exceeded the level before a varroasis disease epidemic which decimated domestic bee colonies in 2008. It took three years than bee-keepers got on the state from 2007. The number of bee colonies could still grow. Czech bee-keepers kept 800 000 bee colonies in the past.