The Czech Republic’s international vegetable trade recorded an unprecedented deficit last year, reaching nearly 13.8 billion crowns – almost one billion crowns higher than in 2023. From January to July this year, vegetable imports have already exceeded exports by 9.5 billion crowns, slightly above the 9.3 billion deficit recorded during the same period last year.

Over one million tons of vegetables were imported into the Czech Republic last year, representing a six percent year-on-year increase, while exports grew to 179,000 tons. Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Morocco ranked as the top countries supplying vegetables to the Czech market.

The trade deficit has shown an alarming upward trend in recent years. After decreasing slightly from 11 billion crowns in 2020 to 10.609 billion in 2022, the deficit surged by 2.2 billion to 12.874 billion crowns in 2023, followed by another increase of 913 million to reach 13.787 billion crowns last year.

Despite increased per capita vegetable production in the Czech Republic over the past decade – largely thanks to the expansion of modern greenhouses for year-round cultivation – the negative trade balance continues to deepen, according to a situation report from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Vegetable Union of Bohemia and Moravia.

Industry experts point to several factors behind the sector’s stagnation, including labor-intensive processes, rising labor costs, increasing input prices, and energy cost developments. Domestic vegetable production for retail chains and processing industries fell by seven percent last year to 211,000 tons, with unfavorable weather conditions and September floods damaging hundreds of hectares of vegetable fields contributing to the lower yield.