IV. CZECH INDUSTRY
CZECH AGRICULTURE IS CHANGING Agricultural production, together with the follow-up food production, is one of the traditional sectors of the national economies of countries all over the world. What is the situation in the Czech Republic in this respect?
Over the past century, the agricultural production surface area of this country declined by 1.6 million ha. In 1918, farmers cultivated some 5.1 million hectares of land. In 2017, cultivated farmland covered an area of a mere 3.5 million hectares. Over the past 100 years, the sown area declined by more than onethird. The acreage of arable land, according to the latest inventory carried out in 2019, is 3 524 000 ha, i.e. 443 ha more than last year. Arable land thus accounts for 70.6 % of total agricultural surface area, the same as last year. In 1920, the figure was 3.8 million ha. Farmers mostly sow cereals. Today, the dominant crop is wheat. A century ago, the main crop was rye, and also oats.
DEVELOPMENT IN 2020
LAND PRICE The average price of farmland in 2020 increased by 3.9 %, the most for the past three years. Farmland is sold at CZK 25.35 per square metre on average. Last year, the 4 % real estate Acquisition Tax was abolished. In other aspects, land trading is undergoing a quiet period. The Coronavirus pandemic has reduced the volume of trading, but in the middle of the year the situation returned to normal. Farmland in the Czech Republic covers a surface area of 4.2 million hectares. Natural persons own three-quarters of the area, which is about 1 hectare of land per natural person.
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In 2020, agricultural production was worth CZK 145.4 billion in basic current prices, according to first estimates. This is a 3.1 % increase year on year. The value of crop production was CZK 82.8 billion, a 3.6 % increase year on year. “The favourable development in crop production in 2020 is mainly due to the good harvests of cereals, rape, legumes, and fodder crops. Price increases are shown mainly for technical crops and fruit,” says Renata Vodičková,
Head of the Agriculture and Forestry Department of the Czech Statistical Office. In 2020, 16 500 vintners cultivated 18 100 hectares of vineyards, according to the latest survey of Vinice 2020. In comparison with the previous survey of 2015, the number of vine growers declined by 9.2 %, while the vineyard surface area increased by 2.3 %. The most widely grown vines are Veltlín Green and Müller Thurgau. The value of animal production is expected to reach CZK 3.7 billion, 1.7 % more than in 2019, mainly due to higher egg and milk production (+9.3 % and +3.1 %, respectively)
The Czech Republic – Your Business Partner in the EU
2021
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