Agriculture - 4. quarter of 2008

Meat production in total went down by 11.0% y-o-y in the 4th quarter of 2008 due to a considerable decrease in pig meat and poultry meat production. Milk collection decreased by 2.3% y-o-y.

Meat production in total amounted to 598 953 tonnes in carcass weight in 2008, which was less by 4.4 % compared to the previous year. Meat production in total included 52.9% of pig meat, 13.4% of beef incl. veal and 33.7% of poultry meat. Milk collection decreased by 0.5% y-o-y.
Slaughter and meat production

Number of slaughtered cattle incl. calves increased by 2.2% y-o-y in the 4th quarter of 2008. On the contrary average carcass weight of cattle went down by 1.9% to 287.2 kg y-o-y. Production of beef incl. veal went up by 0.3% y-o-y.

Both number of slaughtered pigs (by 14.0%) and their average carcass weight decreased in the 4th quarter of 2008 y-o-y (by 1.1% to 87.2 kg). As a result, pig meat production went down by 14.9% y-o- y.

Poultry meat production went down by 8.7% y-o-y.


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

Agricultural producers´ prices of cattle for slaughter declined in all cattle categories in the 4th quarter of 2008 y-o-y: for bulls for slaughter by 2.3%, for cows for slaughter 2.9%, for heifers for slaughter by 0.5%, for calves for slaughter by 11.3% y-o-y. The average price of the S, E, U-quality bulls for slaughter reached CZK 38.45 per kilogram in live weight and CZK 73.99 per kilogram in carcass weight.

Agricultural producers´ price of pigs for slaughter rose by 9.5% y-o-y. The average price of the S, E, U-quality pigs for slaughter reached CZK 31.85 per kilogram in live weight and CZK 40.63 per kilogram in carcass weight.

Agricultural producers´ price of the 1st-quality chicken for slaughter decreased by 8.5% y-o-y. The average price of the 1st-quality chicken reached CZK 21.31 per kilogram in live weight.

Milk collection and agricultural producers´ prices of milk

Milk collected to dairies amounted to 563.2 million litres in the 4th quarter of 2008. Milk collection went down by 2.3% compared to the 4th quarter of 2007.


Agricultural producers´ prices of milk dropped by 19.4% in the 4th quarter of 2008 y-o-y. The average price of the Q-quality milk totalled CZK 7.52 per liter.


Meat production in total amounted to 598 953 tonnes in carcass weight in 2008, which was less by 4.4% compared to 2007. This amount included 316 985 tonnes of pig meat, 79 445 tonnes of beef, 575 tonnes of veal, 190 tonnes of sheep meat, 65 tonnes of horse meat and 201 693 tonnes of poultry meat.

Pig meat production went down by 7.0 % compared to 2007. The production kept on decrease in all quarters of the year. The 4th quarter saw the highest decline in meat production (by 14.9%). The decrease in pig meat production affected a decrease in total pig meat production most of all.

Agricultural producers´ prices of pigs for slaughter kept on y-o-y increase from April to the end of the year. The highest price level was reached in June (Index 112.6%). The average price of pigs for slaughter rose by 4.8% in 2008 compared to 2007. The average price of the S, E, U-quality pigs for slaughter reached CZK 30.39 per kilogram in live weight and CZK 39.35 per kilogram in carcass weight.

According to the preliminary outputs of foreign trade ¹⁾ statistics, trade in live pigs ended in surplus of 2 777 tonnes in a period from the 1st December 2007 to the 30th November 2008. Imports of live pigs (for slaughter and piglets) amounted to 11 514 tonnes and exports totaled 14 291 tonnes. Pig imports went up almost twice (by 5 543 tonnes) whereas exports went down by 10.0% y-o-y (by 1 612 tonnes). Pigs were imported predominantly from Germany (40%), the Netherlands (30%), Denmark (21%) and Austria (8%). Imports went primarily to Slovakia (61%), Hungary (18%) and Germany (12%).

Foreign trade ¹⁾ in pig meat production ended in passive trade balance (-112 526 tonnes). Imports in total amounted to 146 312 tonnes and exports totaled 33 786 tonnes of meat. Imports of pig meat increased by 12.6% (by 16 316 tonnes) and exports went up by 23.1% (by 6 346 tonnes) y-o-y. Pig meat was imported primarily from Germany (47%), Austria (15%) and to a lesser extent from Poland (8%), Spain (7%) and the Netherlands (7%). Exports went largely to Slovakia (84%) and to a lesser amount to Germany (6%).

Beef incl. veal production increased by 0.9% y-o-y. Meat production kept on y-o-y increase in all quarters of the year except for the 1st quarter, in which a slight decrease was recorded.

Prices of agricultural producers´ of cattle for slaughter declined for bulls by 3.2%, for cows by 1.0% and for calves by 4.7% y-o-y. %. On the contrary prices of heifers rose by 1.9% y-o-y. The average price of bulls for slaughter the S, E, U-quality reached CZK 38.81 per kilogram in live weight and CZK 74.32 per kilogram in carcass weight.

Foreign trade ¹⁾ in live cattle (cattle for slaughter and calves) ended in surplus of 43 281 tonnes in the period from the 1st December of 2007 to the 30th November of 2008. Imports in total amounted to 1 966 tonnes and imports totaled 45 247 tonnes of live cattle. Imports increased by 6.0% (by 112 tonnes) and exports went up by 19.3% (by 7 329 tonnes). The highest amount of live cattle was imported from Slovakia (80%) less from Germany (12%). Exports went to Austria (49%), Germany (17%), Italy (6%) and Croatia (6%).

Foreign trade ¹⁾ in beef ended in a passive trade balance of 9 332 tonnes in the period from the 1st December of 2007 to the 30th November of 2008. Beef imports amounted to 14 863 tonnes and exports totaled 5 531 tonnes of meat. Beef imports decreased by 16.1% (by 2 846 tonnes) and exports went up almost by one-half (by 1 752 tonnes) y-o-y. Beef was imported predominantly from Poland (29%), Germany (23%) and Austria (13%) and to a lesser extent from Slovakia (8%), Ireland (8%) and the Netherlands (8%). Beef exports went largely to Slovakia (35%), Austria (34%), Poland (14%) and Germany (11%).

Poultry meat production went down by 2.0 % in 2008 y-o-y. Poultry meat production kept on decrease in all quarters of the year except for the second one, in which an increase in production by 3.3% was recorded.

Price of the 1st-quality chicken for slaughter kept on increase from January to September y-o-y. In October the price started to decline. The lowest price level was reached in December (Index 89.0%). The average price of the 1st-quality chicken rose by 8.8% y-o-y in 2008. The average price of the 1st- quality chicken reached CZK 22,82 per kilogram in live weight.

Foreign trade ¹⁾ in live poultry ended in a surplus of 32 636 tonnes in the period from the 1st December of 2007 to the 30th November of 2008. Imports of live poultry amounted to 4 567 tonnes and exports totaled 37 203 tonnes. Imports of live poultry went down by 20.0% (by 1 208 tonnes), while exports went up by 9.5% (by 3 212 tonnes) The biggest amount of live poultry was imported from Slovakia (69%), less amount from Germany (11%), Hungary (9%) and the United Kingdom (8%). Exports went predominantly to Germany (49%), Poland (33%) and Slovakia (12%).

Foreign trade ¹⁾ in poultry meat ended in a passive balance of 39 044 tonnes in the period from the 1st December of 2007 to the 30th November of 2008. Imports in total amounted to 60 305 tonnes and exports totaled 21 261 tonnes of poultry meat. Imports of poultry meat went down by 14.4% (by 7 574 tonnes) and exports decreased by 3.3% (by 734 tonnes). Poultry meat was imported mainly from Poland (36%), Brazil (20%), Germany (13%), Slovakia (9%), France (6%), Hungary (5%) and the Netherlands (5%). Exports went predominantly to Slovakia (52%) and to a lesser extent to Germany (15%), Hungary (13%), Austria (7%) and to the Netherlands (7%).

Milk collection to dairies amounted to 2 368.6 million litres in 2008, which was less by 0.5% compared to 2007. Milk quotas have limited the milk production (and also dairy cow numbers) since accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union. According to the livestock census as of the 1st April of 2008, dairy cow numbers went down by 1.2% to 406 thous. heads.

Agricultural producers´ prices of the Q-quality cow milk kept on increase from January to August 2008 y-o-y. A decrease in price started from September and minimum was reached in December (Index 72.3%). The average price of the Q-quality milk rose by 6.5% y-o-y and reached CZK 8.76 per liter in 2008.

Foreign trade ¹⁾ in milk and milk products ended in active balance of 521.2 thous. tonnes in the period from the 1st December of 2007 to the 30th November of 2008. Imports of milk and milk products amounted to 290.2 thous. tonnes and exports totaled 811.4 thous. tonnes. Exports of milk and milk products went down by 8.2% (by 25.9 thous. tonnes) and imports increased by 4.0% (by 31 thous. tonnes) y-o-y. Milk and milk products were imported in particular from Slovakia (44%), Germany (28%) and Poland (20%). Exports went predominantly to Germany (60%) and Slovakia (16%).

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 carried out by the Czech Statistical Office, Agricultural Producer Price Indices in December 2008 (CZSO).
Milk collection and purchase of poultry – survey conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Date of completing data collection: 9 January 2009
Date of completing data processing: 26 January 2009
Published data are final with the exception of foreign trade data.
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