Demand for regional foods increases in Czech Republic

The Czechs value food from domestic production. The success of the farmers markets, which attract tens of thousands of customers in Prague every weekend, prove this impressively.

Here the demand for fruit and vegetables is larger than the supply, research by Czech television shows. The domestic production of these products covers less than a third of the need. Most of the fruit and vegetable in the trade is therefore imported. The main suppliers in this are Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. Due to subsidy regulations foreign imports are also often much cheaper.

The result: at the moment fruit and vegetables are only grown on around 50,000 hectares in the Czech Republic. This is only 1.26 percent of the total agricultural land.

But the consumer's growing demand could turn this around. More and more customers are prepared to pay more for high value, regional products. This started with the advance that the Czech garlic has been experiencing for years. Although the garlic from the Czech regions of Bohemia and Moravia is almost twice as expensive as garlic from Spain, it is sold more in Czech Republic.