BARLEY-GROWING IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC IN 1993-2004

Since 1989 the Czech Republic has got through marked political and economic changes that obviously affected the barley and malt production in 1993-2004. Although the number of workplaces dealing with barley breeding has declined in this period, malting varieties of barley with very good technological parameters cultivated in the Czech Republic have appeared in the market. The variety assortment in the fields of the Czech Republic was changed in favour of foreign malt buyers. Change in the variety assortment reflected in shifting the variety quality towards the varieties that modify rapidly with tendency to deep fermentation. The spring barley production in the Czech Republic in 1993-2004 varied in the scope of 1,069,000-1,820.000 tons a year. Export and import of barley was affected by the size and quality of the local production in the single years. The malt production in the Czech Republic was further concentrated and modernized and moved on the level of 361,000-511,000 tons a year. Annually about 40-50 % of the produced malt was exported from the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is able to produce a sufficient amount of the good-quality malting barley for local malt-houses or for export, which guarantees stability of the domestic malting industry and meeting needs of local and foreign breweries, buyers of Czech good quality malt.