In Business News this week: Czech Turbolet passenger planes could be manufactured in Russia in 2020; the average cost of a Prague taxi is 20 crowns per kilometre gas and diesel prices continue to fall; beekeepers see more than 60 million crowns in subsidies; vegetable prices higher than usual.
Czech L-410s could be built in Russia in 2020
L-410, photo: Pavel Sedláček
Czech L-410 Turbolet passenger planes could be manufactured in Russia in 2020, according to Andrej Kozicyn, the head of the Russian industrial holding firm UGMK, which became the wholesale owner of LET Kunovice Aircraft Industries in 2013. UGMK presented the first L-410NG aircraft design this summer. Some model parts could already be produced within two years. The L-410s manufactured in Russia will be primarily for the Russian market and neighbouring countries.
Average cost of Prague taxi per kilometre is 20 crowns
Photo: Tomáš Adamec
The average cost per kilometre of a taxi ride in the Czech capital is 20 crowns, alternative taxi service firms Taxify and Liftago have revealed. City Hall enforced a cap on the price per kilometre at a maximum 28 but is offering to raise the price to 32 crowns; taxi companies, however, are lobbying for the ceiling to be lifted to 38 or even 45. Other data gathered showed that taxi drivers, on average, drive between 200 and 300 kilometres per day, but only 25 percent of the distance covered is with customers.
Gas and diesel prices continue to fall
Photo: Tomáš Adamec
Gas and diesel fuel prices have continued to drop in the Czech Republic: the cost of tanking up is the lowest since February. Over one week, Natural 95 fell by 25 hellers to an average of 30.53 crowns per litre; diesel dropped by six hellers to an average 29.38 crowns, CCS, a company monitoring sales, said. Prices in Prague remain higher than in the rest of the country; by region, Ústí, Liberec and Moravia-Silesia, have the lowest, all currently sell diesel for less than 28 crowns per litre, Ústí has the lowest average price for unleaded gas.
Sixty-four million crowns go to beekeepers
Photo: Jitka Cibulová Vokatá
Beekeepers received a total of 64.5 million crowns in subsidies in 2015 and will receive a similar amount next year, the State Agricultural Intervention Fund has confirmed. Half of this year’s subsidies came from the state budget and the rest from EU funds. The Czech Beekeepers’ Association said that more than 50,000 bee keepers, owning almost 600,000 bee colonies, applied for funding this year; they asked for more funding than was available. Despite winter losses, the spring saw good conditions; a kilo of honey currently sells for 130 – 180 crowns. Dark honey costs around 180, the Czech News Agency added.
Vegetable prices rise
Photo: Barbora Kmentová
Prices have continued to go up for vegetables including potatoes, carrots and paprika peppers, the Czech Statistics Office reports. The Czech Vegetable Growers Union of Bohemia and Moravia, Jaroslav Zeman, confirmed he did not expect prices to fall before the next harvest. He confirmed the conventional wisdom that by this time of the year prices usually fall by 30 – 40 percent, but 2015 had proven an exception. For example, the price of carrots rose by five percent to more than 20 crowns per kilo, a difference of six crowns from the same period last year. Low-cost imports could still influence a drop in prices, but Mr Zeman suggested that was unlikely given yields in the rest of Europe.
