News Releases - Agriculture - 1 quarter

135 752 tonnes of meat in carcass weight were produced in the 1st quarter of 2009. This amount included 53.6% of pig meat, 14.2% of beef incl. veal and 32.2% of poultry meat. Meat production total went down by 10.8% and milk collection by 5.2%.
Slaughter and meat production

Numbers of cattle for slaughter incl. calves decreased by 0.4% y-o-y; of which bull numbers went down by 11.8% but numbers of cows increased by 11.7% in the 1st quarter of 2009. Average carcass weight of cattle went down by 2.9% to 286.7 kg. As a result, beef production inc. veal decreased by 3.4% y-o-y.

Numbers of pigs for slaughter went down by 12.2% y-o-y and their average carcass weight decreased by 1.0% to 88.2 kg. Pig meat production declined by 13.1% y-o-y.

Poultry meat production dropped by 9.9% y-o-y.

Results of cattle, pigs and poultry rearing

According to the results of animal products statistics, cattle numbers decreased y-o-y by 0.7% to 1,358 thousand heads as of 31 December 2008. Total cow numbers went down by 1.0% to 554 thousand heads, of which numbers of dairy cows were down by 1.9% to 400 thousand heads. On the contrary, suckler cow numbers went up by 1.4% to 154 thousand heads y-o-y. Average annual milk yield increased y-o-y by 3.5% to 6,776.2 litres per cow in 2008.

Pig numbers decreased by 19.8% to 2,135 thousand heads y-o-y as of 1 December 2008, of which sow numbers dropped by 24.2% to 150 thousand heads and gilt numbers went down by 17.2% to 62 thousand heads. Number of weaned piglets recorded a rise by 3.4% to 20.8 heads per sow y-o-y in 2008.

Total numbers of poultry went up by 2.5% to 24,285 thousand heads as of 31 December 2008 y-o-y, of which number of hens rose by 0.7% to 6,351 thousand heads. Average egg laying went up by 1.2% y-o-y to 284.8 pieces per hen.

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

Agricultural producers’ prices of cattle for slaughter increased by 2.2% y-o-y for bulls for slaughter, whereas they decreased by 0.9% y-o-y for cows for slaughter, by 1.3% for heifers for slaughter and by 12.6% for calves for slaughter in the 1st quarter of 2009. Average price of bulls for slaughter in S,E,U-quality reached CZK 40.57 per kilogram in live weight and CZK 75.67 per kilogram in carcass weight in the 1st quarter 2009.

Agricultural producers’ prices of pigs for slaughter went up by 9.2% y-o-y in the 1st quarter 2009. Average price of pigs for slaughter in S,E,U -quality rose to the level of CZK 29.24 per kilogram in live weight and CZK 37.80 per kilogram in carcass weight.

Prices of agricultural producers of chicken for slaughter in 1st-quality category decreased by 12.3% y-o-y in the 1st quarter 2009. Average price of chicken in 1st-quality category reached the level CZK 20.67 per kilogram in live weight.

Foreign trade in meat and live animals

According to preliminary results, foreign trade ¹⁾ in meat ended in a passive trade balance 2,160 tonnes for beef, 29,867 tonnes for pig meat and 9,942 tonnes for poultry meat in the period from 1 December 2008 to 28 February 2009.

Beef imports went up by 6.3% (by 218 tonnes) while exports increased by 16.1% (by 214 tonnes) y-o-y. Beef was imported predominantly from Poland (40%), Germany (23%) and Austria (17%). Exports went primarily to Slovakia (31%) and Austria (27%) and to a lesser extent to Poland (16%) and Germany (14%).

Imports of pig meat went up by 19,1% (by 6,169 tonnes) and exports increased by 8.5% (by 666 tonnes) y-o-y. Almost a half of imported pig meat came from Germany (47%), other importers to the Czech Republic were Austria (13%), Spain (9%) and Poland (8%). Majority of pig meat export went to Slovakia (89%).

Poultry meat imports decreased by 2.2% (by 330 tonnes) whereas exports increased by 13.0% (by 581 tonnes) y-o-y. Poultry meat was imported largely from Poland (36%), Brazil (19%), France (12%), Slovakia (9%) and Germany (8%). Meat was exported predominantly to Slovakia (54%), Hungary (16%) and Germany (15%).

Foreign trade1) in live animals ended in an active trade balance 12,521 tonnes for cattle and 7,943 tonnes for poultry but in a passive trade balance 430 tonnes for pigs.

Imports of live cattle fell by 1.1% (by 5 tonnes) whereas exports went up by 51.2% (by 4,400 tonnes) y-o-y. Live cattle were imported largely from Slovakia (86%) and to a lesser extent from Germany (12%). Imports went firstly to Austria (54%), than to Germany (15%) and Hungary (8%).

Pig imports went up by 137.0% (by 2,156 tonnes) whereas exports decreased by 6.4% (by 224 tonnes) y-o-y. Live pigs were imported from Germany (33%), Denmark (27%) and the Netherlands (26%). Pig exports were destined predominantly for Slovakia (56%), Hungary (27%) and Germany (12%).

Imports in live poultry increased by 28.1% (by 221 tonnes), while exports went down by 9.0% (by 890 tonnes) y-o-y. Live poultry were imported predominantly from Slovakia (55%) and Germany (38%), exports went to Germany (58%), Poland (22%) and Slovakia (14%).

Milk collection and agricultural producers’ prices of milk

Milk collected to dairies stand at 568.8 million litres in the 1st quarter 2008. Milk collection went down by 5.2% in comparison to the same period of the previous year.

The drop in agricultural producers’ prices of milk recorded in 2008 continued in the 1st quarter of 2009. Average agricultural producers’ price of Q-quality milk dropped by 35.1% y-o-y. The average price of Q-quality milk reached CZK 6.54 per litre, in March only CZK 6.25 per litre.

Foreign trade in milk and milk products

Foreign trade ¹⁾ in milk and milk products ended in active trade balance 140.3 thousand tonnes in the period from 1 December 2008 to 28 February 2009 due to a high amount of raw milk exports (incl. cream). Imports of milk and milk products went down by 13.6% (by 9.8 thousand tonnes) and exports increased by 2.2% (by 4.5 thousand tonnes) y-o-y. Milk and milk products were imported predominantly from Slovakia (38%), Germany (31%) and Poland (20%) and exported largely to Germany (58%) and Slovakia (17%).
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^{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). The threshold values have been raised as of 1 January 2009 to CZK 8 mil. for both dispatched and arrived goods. However, the providers of statistical information, who exceeded the exemption threshold 2 or 4 millions CZK in 2008 are obliged to continue declaring Intrastat data in 2009 as well.

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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 2009 (CZSO).
Milk collection and purchase of poultry – survey conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Date of completing data collection: 10 April 2009
Date of completing data processing: 27 April 2009
Published data are final with exception of foreign trade data.
Following tables: /katalog-produktu