Agriculture - 1. quarter of 2008

It was produced 152 238 tonnes of meat in carcass weight in the 1st quarter of 2008. This amount included 55.1% of pig meat, 13.1% of beef incl. veal and 31.8% of poultry meat. Meat production total went down by 0.5% whereas milk collection went up by 2.0% y-o-y.

Slaughter and meat production

Numbers of cattle for slaughter incl. calves decreased by 1.6% y-o-y, of which bull numbers went down by 1.0% in the 1st quarter of 2008. Average carcass weight of cattle went up by 0.8% to 295.4 kg. As a result, beef production inc. veal decreased by 0.8% y-o-y.

Numbers of pigs for slaughter went down by 1.1% y-o-y whereas their average carcass weight increased by 0.5% to 89.1 kg. Pig meat production decreased by 0.6% y-o-y.

It was recorded a decrease in poultry meat production by 0.4% y-o-y.

Results of cattle, pigs and poultry rearing

According to results of animal products statistics, cattle numbers decreased by 1.6% to 1, 367 thous. heads as of the 31st December of 2007 y-o-y. Cow numbers went down by 1.5% to 559 thous. heads, of which numbers of dairy cows decreased by 2.4% to 407 thous. heads. On the contrary suckler cow numbers went up by 0.9% to 152 thous. heads y-o-y. Average annual milk yield went up by 2.8% to 6,548.3 litres per cow y-o-y in 2007.

Pig numbers dropped by 2.9% to 2,662 thous. heads y-o-y as of the 1st December of 2007, of which sow numbers decreased by 10.8% to 197 thous. heads and gilt numbers went down by 20.9% to 75 thous. heads . Numbers of weaned piglets increased by 3.5% to 20.1 heads per sow y-o-y in 2007.

Numbers of poultry went up by 0.9% to 23,683 thous. heads as of the 31st December of 2007 y-o-y. Average egg laying went up by 1.3% y-o-y to 281.4 pieces per hen.


Agricultural producers’ prices of cattle, pigs and chicken for slaughter

Agricultural producers’ prices of cattle for slaughter declined by 4.2% for bulls for slaughter and by 1.6% for cows for slaughter in the 1st quarter of 2008. On the contrary prices of heifers for slaughter went up by 2.6% and prices of calves for slaughter increased by 0.8% y-o-y. Average price of bulls for slaughter the S,E,U-quality reached CZK 38.93 per kilogram in live weight and CZK 75.32 per kilogram in carcass weight in the 1st quarter of 2008.

Trend in price decrease of pigs for slaughter recorded throughout the 2007 went on in the 1st quarter of 2008. Agricultural producers’ prices of pigs for slaughter went down by 3.0% y-o-y in the 1st quarter of 2008. Average price of pigs for slaughter the S,E,U -quality declined at level of CZK 26.96 per kilogram in live weight and CZK 35.06 per kilogram in carcass weight.

Prices of agricultural producers of chicken for slaughter the 1st-quality increased by 21.5% y-o-y in the 1st quarter of 2008. Average price of chicken the quality above mentioned rose at level CZK 23.55 per kilogram in live weight.

Foreign trade ¹⁾ in meat and live animals

According to preliminary results, foreign trade ¹⁾ in meat ended in a passive trade balance 2,069 tonnes for beef, 23,922 tonnes for pig meat and 9,954 tonnes for poultry meat in the period from the 1st December of 2007 to the 29th February of 2008.

Beef imports went down by 4.9% (by 174 tonnes), while exports increased by 61.5% (by 507 tonnes) y-o-y. Beef was imported predominantly from Germany (23%), Poland (21%), Austria (15%), Slovakia (13%) and Ireland (11%). Exports went primarily to Slovakia (37%) and Austria (29%), to a lesser extent to Poland (14%) and Germany (12%).

Imports of pig meat went up by 8,8% (by 2,564 tonnes) and exports increased almost twice (by 2,475 tonnes) y-o-y. Pig meat was imported largely from Germany (45%), Austria (15%), Poland (10%) and the Netherlands (9%). Meat was exported to Slovakia (83%).

Poultry meat imports increased by 22.8% (by 2,683 tonnes) whereas exports decreased by 13.8% (by 719 tonnes) y-o-y. Poultry meat was imported largely from Poland (38%), Brazil (16%), Germany (10%) and Slovakia (9%). Meat was exported predominantly to Slovakia (49%), Germany (18%) and Hungary (12%).

Foreign trade ¹⁾ in live animals ended in active trade balance 8,026 tonnes for cattle, 1,881 tonnes for pigs and 9,044 tonnes for poultry.

Imports of live cattle increased by 81.5% (by 214 tonnes) whereas exports went down by 5.6% (by 509 tonnes) y-o-y. Live cattle were imported largely from Slovakia (84%) and to a lesser extent from Germany (12%). Imports went firstly to Austria (45%) and Germany (21%).

Pig imports increased by 16.2% (by 219 tonnes) whereas exports decreased by 19.6% (by 843 tonnes) y-o-y. Live pigs were imported from the Netherlands (51%), Germany (25%) and Denmark (19%). Pig exports were destined predominantly for Slovakia (67%), Germany (19%) and Hungary (10%).

Imports in live poultry decreased by 15.5% (by 147 tonnes), while exports went up by 37.8% (by 2,699 tonnes) y-o-y. Live poultry were imported predominantly from Slovakia (78%) and Hungary (13%), exports went to Germany (57%, Poland (27%) and Slovakia (11%).


Milk collection and agricultural producers’ prices of milk

Milk collected to dairies stand at 600.2 million litres in the 1st quarter of 2008. Milk collection increased by 2.0% in comparison to the same period of the previous year.

Trend in growth of agricultural producers’ prices of milk that appeared in the second semester of 2007 was continuing in the 1st quarter of 2008. Average price of agricultural producers of the Q-quality milk rose by 28.9% y-o-y. The average price of the Q-quality milk reached CZK 10.06 per liter.

Foreign trade ¹⁾ in milk and milk products

Foreign trade ¹⁾ in milk and milk products ended in active trade balance 124.4 thous. tonnes in the period from the 1st December of 2007 to the 29th February of 2008 due to a high amount of raw milk exports (incl. cream). Imports of milk and milk products went up by 12.8% (by 8.1 thous. tonnes) and exports increased by 4.6% (by 8.7 thous. tonnes) y-o-y. Milk and milk products were imported predominantly from Slovakia (50%), Germany (25%), Poland (15%) and exported largely to Germany (58%) and Slovakia (19%).

1) For Intra-Community trade excl. data under Intrastat statistics threshold (annual value of goods - CZK 2 mil. for receipt, CZK 4 mil. for dispatch)

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Methodical note:
Contact person: Jiří Hrbek, phone 27405 2331, e-mail: jiri.hrbek@csu.gov.cz
Source: full survey on livestock slaughter carried out by the Czech Statistical Office, Agricultural Producer Price Indices in March of 2008 (CZSO).
Milk collection and purchase of poultry – survey conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Date of completing data collection: 10 April 2008
Date of completing data processing: 22 April 2008
Published data are final with exception of foreign trade data.
Following tables: /katalog-produktu