Sborník 2009 díl 2. - Fakulta informatiky a managementu - Univerzita ...

Luboš Smutka, Michal Steininger, Ondřej Miffek CZECH AGRICULTURAL FOREIGN TRADE
DEVELOPMENT
Brief Characteristic of Czech Agricultural Production
The share of Czech agrarian sector in total national GDP is only about 2-3%. During the
last more than ten years the size of agrarian sector was permanently decreasing, but
today we can say that the development of current agrarian production is stabilized. The
rapid decline of domestic agricultural production from the transformation period was
stopped and at the present time agricultural sector production is quite stable. In 1993-
2007 the average volume of agricultural production was about 17.5 million tonnes.
There are some oscillations in agricultural production, but these changes have been
influencing the structure of production, but not final production quantity. While the
development of crops production is possible to evaluate as stable (in analysed time
period the average inter annual growth rate of production was about 0.28%), animal
production has been permanently facing to negative development trend (in 1993-2007
the average inter annual growth rate of animal production was about -2.3%). The
current agricultural production level is not able to satisfied domestic demand for
agricultural and foodstuff products. In 2003 the level of production was able to cover
about 80% of domestic consumption.
GRAPH 1: Czech agricultural production development
Tonnes
Development of agricultural production volume in 1993-2007 (2006,
2007 only preliminary data)
25 000 000
20 000 000
15 000 000
10 000 000
5 000 000
0
1993
1995
Source: FAO, own processing
1997
1999
2001
Years
2003
2005
2007
Total v olume of production
Animal production v olume
Plant production v olume
The Czech Republic has never been country with sufficient agricultural production and
therefore agrarian imports (especially non-competitive products) have been an important part
of our agricultural and foodstuff market. The Czech Republic is developing intensive trade
relations with many European Union member countries in particular. The value of agrarian
trade is constantly increasing, and during the last 15 years (1993 – 2007) agrarian trade
turnover increased by 250%. Even though the value of agrarian trade is constantly increasing,
its share in total trade is declining. During last 15 years, the share of foreign agrarian trade in
total foreign trade decreased from 7.6% in 1993 to 4.6% in 2007. The reason for this
development trend is the more dynamic growth rate of trade in other sectors (especially the
manufacturing sector) in comparison to the agricultural sector. While average inter-annual
(1993 – 2007) growth rate of agrarian trade turnover reached about 9.7%, inter-annual growth
rate of total trade increased by 13.6% - which means that the agrarian sector is constantly
losing its position. The following tables 1 and 2 illustrate development trends of agrarian trade
(export, import, balance and turnover development in the period 1993 – 2007).
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