Agriculture Minister: No significant decrease in Czech grain exports

Czechia’s Ministry of Agriculture has not registered any significant decrease in the country’s grain exports, the head of the ministry, Zdeněk Nekula, said on Thursday. The statement came following a claim by the Agricultural Association of the Czech Republic last week, according to which the country’s grain store reserves were up by 40 percent when compared to last year and that the relevant market had come to a halt due to cheap imports of grain from Ukraine into the European Union.

In recent days, several EU member states, including many of Czechia’s neighbouring countries, announced temporary bans on Ukrainian imports in order to protect their own farmers’ interests.

Czechia’s agriculture minister said on Thursday that Czech grain exports are continuing and that many of the future sales have already been negotiated. Grain prices in Czechia fell year-on-year in March by nearly a hundred crowns, from CZK 6,885 to CZK 6,787 per ton. According to Petr Havel, an analyst at the Czech News Agency, this was not only due to cheap grain imports from Ukraine, but also because many farmers kept the commodity in storage last year, waiting for prices to rise again.