Prague, 29 February 2024

The Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic, together with the Agricultural Union of the Czech Republic representing over 75% of the production of Czech farmers, agreed at today’s meeting of the boards of both organizations to protest the government’s agricultural policy across the board.

This was done on the basis of negotiations with the Minister of Agriculture, Mark Excellent, who has not fulfilled the promises and expectations of farmers and has not negotiated the necessary support for the Czech agrarian sector with government partners.

The earliest demonstrations will start on March 7, 2024 in Prague and further follow-up protests will be decided in the coming days.

At today’s meeting, the Farmers’ Union of the Czech Republic and the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic decided to organize further protests to express their opposition to the current agricultural policy of the Czech government. “Czech agriculture continues to face the same problems with increasing intensity that have been highlighted by both organisations for several years. In the person of The Excellent Minister we found a negotiating partner, however even he was not able to push through such steps within the government negotiations, which our agriculture desperately needs,” says Martin Pýcha, chairman of the Agricultural Union of the Czech Republic, adding: “At a time when agricultural commodity prices were plummeting and other states were looking for ways to help farmers, the government increased the property tax, which exacerbates the economic problems of Czech farmers. As for the subsidy tax, it is meaningless in its substance. The already taxed funds after being sent to Brussels and after their return in the form of subsidies and redistribution between farmers makes no sense to re-tax. The European Commission also draws attention to this fact in the Czech Republic.”

The basic requirements of farmers vis-à-vis the government are:

1. Fulfilling a promise to launch rural employment support given to us by Deputy Prime Minister Marian Jurečka two years ago and agreed by the ruling coalition in 2022.

2. Meeting the government’s pledge not to cut $5 billion in national subsidies Kč, which was given to us by Deputy Prime Minister Marian Jurečka in 2022. This promise was broken by the government as soon as 2023, when it was cut to EUR 2.7 billion and is cut further to EUR 2.5 billion in 2024. £.

3. Non-taxation of European subsidies and return property tax to farmland to 2023 levels

4. Actively address the surplus of basic commodities in the EU, especially cereals and oilseeds – by restricting imports from third countries, promoting exports from the EU and increasing consumption in THE ONS.

(The Agriculture Minister promised us that he would tackle the surplus of cereals on the market in the EU. Subsequently, the government, through the Ministry of Industry, voted to extend duty-free imports from Ukraine for another year.)

5. Fully co-finance, as in other EU countries, the 2024 rescue package being prepared by the European Commission and paid out as quickly as possible to all farmers per hectare of cereals.

JK