June 8, 2010

"Pig numbers in the Czech Republic dropped by one fifth to two million heads last year, while pork imports increased at the same ratio," says one analyst.

"The reason is the fact that retailers push meat prices downwards owing to the crisis and meat processors pass this pressure on to breeders. Breeders then have to sell a kilo of live weight of meat for Kc25.70 (US$1.18), while their costs stand around Kc30 (US$1.38)," Mr Veleba, a local analyst, said.

The number of sows bred in the Czech Republic has fallen by half to about 125,000 since 2003, reports Prague Daily Monitor. "This is connected with unequal conditions on the single European market. The subsidies domestic farmers get per hectare of land are twice lower than their western competitors receive. The Czech Republic, however, has specific conditions - pig breeders have virtually no land, so they do not receive any subsidies at all," Czech Pig Breeders Association head Jindrich Machacek said.

"The decline in sow numbers and the share of domestic pork on the market would be prevented if the state distributed a sum of Kc400 million among breeders every year," according to Mr Machacek.