The Agrarian Chamber once again pointed out that the Minister of Agriculture Marek Výborný is not negotiating with it and that government assistance is not enough. More protests are coming up in Prague, they should take place in two weeks, on May 22 in Prague.
In the interview, the minister and I talked about the “rescue package” for farmers, help for fruit growers whose crops were destroyed by frost, and also about the wine tax, which the Minister of People’s Republic rejects. At the same time, he also points to catastrophic frosts. The proposal for taxation of still wine is to be presented by the Ministry of Finance by the end of May.
“I want to emphasize that even in the context of the last 14 days and the frosts that damaged this year’s harvest in the vineyards, I really warn against continuing this debate now,” said Marek Výborný in an interview.
In two weeks, the farmers intend to protest again in Prague. From the outside, it looks like negotiations broke down and you didn’t find common ground.
I don’t feel that way at all. I deal very patiently with NGOs and individual farmers whom I visit. Of course, I am not able to accommodate them in everything. It’s not like negotiations have broken down or stopped.
But that’s what it looks like from the statements of the largest agricultural organizations. The Agrarian Chamber made demands that you were not aware of, including compensation for damage to vegetables.
I myself was surprised by this step of the Agrarian Chamber and the Agricultural Union. I find this very unfortunate given the reputation that the whole sector has.
Yes, we last spoke ten days ago. Nevertheless, I hear some requests from the media earlier than from these organizations.
It seems that your ideas about how to perceive adequate help for farmers in this day and age are still diverging. Have any of the proposed measures been amended, whether it is an increase in investment subsidies, assistance in business in the countryside, or an increase in funds for animal welfare by 550 million crowns?
Conditions have improved. Some businesses are currently having a problem with cash, for example, so I have agreed that we will pay national animal welfare subsidies in advance for the first time in history, i.e. from 15 to 30 June. Farmers will receive half of the total amount of over 1.2 billion crowns.
Farmers often complain about late payment of direct payments.
Although we have been criticized for the last two months that subsidy payments are slow, we are fully in line with the schedule we published last fall. All farmers knew this beforehand.
Why are subsidies paid out more slowly than a year ago?
We are in the first year of the new Common Agricultural Policy. We also have three times as many programs, partly because NGOs have asked for various extension programs. The paying agency was in a more difficult situation. However, we are fulfilling the set schedule. As of last week, we paid out 21.7 billion crowns out of the amount of 29.7 billion. Decisions were issued for 24.6 billion crowns. 95 percent must be paid by June 30 and we will meet that.
One of the measures to help farmers is an increase in investment subsidies this year. But they argue that they have cash problems now and the projects will pay off in a few years.
That’s true, we will issue the subsidies this year, but the money will not actually arrive until 2025 or 2026. But these are investment programs for the future in agriculture, we live not only on the basis of the direct support paid per area today, but also on long-term development.
We want to apply modern principles of precision agriculture, use modern technologies such as drones or autonomous vehicles, which are already appearing in applications, and therefore we will include these programs already this year and not wait until the last year. The envelope will therefore be strengthened from 500 million crowns to almost two billion crowns. I want to assure the public that tractors are not the target of investment support.
So is the agricultural package complete, or is there room for further modifications?
It is not finished and it will probably never be, because it also needs to be reduced as part of it, and this is a permanent process that we have been working on since I took office, and many things have been successful. For example, we reduced the requirements associated with tillage.
You have visited the orchards, you meet the orchardists. What is their situation?
What hit us two weeks ago was not the standard spring freeze that comes very often and causes damage of ten to 20 percent. We would not solve this at the government, but we would leave it up to individual entrepreneurs to deal with it. That’s what insurance is supposed to work for. However, we are in a completely unprecedented situation. We have the biggest damage in a hundred years, since 1929. The harvest in Bohemia will be almost zero, the damage is 90-100 percent. In the whole of the Czech Republic, we harvest roughly only 20 percent of the fruit harvest.
You asked the European Commission for 100 million euros from the crisis reserve. Why do you want such a high amount (approx. 2.5 billion crowns), when you yourself admit that you do not want to compensate all the damage to farmers affected by the frost?
We asked for support in the amount of damage, which we estimate was caused to fruit orchards, but also to nurseries, where the impact was quite significant. We are considering whether to find a way to include vineyards in this support. In Moravia, damage to vineyards is around 30 percent, but Czech vineyards from the area of Mělnick, northern Bohemia and Mostek have major problems, where everything has frozen. We asked the European Commission for 100 million euros, but I understand that it is not entirely realistic to get this amount.
Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura has promised to present a proposal for taxing still wine by the end of May. How do you feel about it?
We do not write tax laws at the Ministry of Agriculture. Because there was no agreement before in the working group, where representatives of the winemakers, the government coalition, the Ministry of Finance, the Customs Administration, etc. sat, I forwarded the proposals to the presidents of the parties and the Minister of Finance. The solution is up to them at this point.
But I want to emphasize that even in the context of the last 14 days and the frosts that damaged this year’s harvest in the vineyards, I really warn against continuing this debate now, because from my point of view it is a bit of a gamble with the entire wine sector in the Czech Republic. I don’t think it’s reasonable to fix it.
Is the government discussing monitoring the ownership of farms and capping subsidies for farmers?
We repeatedly discussed the topic at the agricultural coalition meeting. As I promised to the non-governmental organizations, I prepared the material that I will bring to the government in the near future. It is supposed to initiate the creation of a state register that would track the property connections of all business entities, regardless of whether they are engaged in agriculture or elsewhere.
The Association of Private Agriculture objects that the creation of a similar register is not necessary, because the interconnectedness of enterprises is partly monitored within the framework of the PGRLF or other institutions.
The PGRLF and possibly also the SZIF for investment subsidies monitor the property linkage, but there are usually hundreds of applications for which it is possible to manually verify whether there is a linkage among the applicants using various commercial tools. However, when you have 31,000 requests for direct payments on your desk, neither the paying agency nor the guarantee fund can handle it. So it is about volume and we would need a standard tool for that. I am having a debate about it with Mr. Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Bartoš, because the registers should logically be managed by a digital agency.
Is it realistic to make it to the elections?
I don’t think it is. It’s a matter of several years, maybe two to three years. We have it in the program statement, but it cannot be done in a year and a half. But I want work on it to start.
