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The paper aims to analyse the contemporary situation on markets with selected organic products in the Czech Republic as well as in selected European countries. The attention is paid especially to the share of organic products´ consumption (cereals, potatoes, fruits, vegetables, milk, pork, poultry and eggs) in the total food consumption in the Czech Republic, in Spain, in Sweden, in the Netherlands and in Great Britain.

Despite the significant decrease of unemployment in Slovak Republic during the year 2003, the problem of high unemployment is still very relevant. In the previous period, various measures of active labour policy have been applied, and their efficiency was approved or disproved only by their realisation. In order to achieve the highest possible efficiency of the spent financial means, it is desirable that every prepared measure is assessed from different aspects by specialists, independent experts as well as by subjects that are to participate in the particular measure. This contribution represents ex ante evaluation analysis. Its objective is to assess the newly proposed measure in the field of active labour policy. The proposal of the measure was elaborated by Dr. Stanislav Buchta, CSc. and was published in the scientific contribution "Possible solutions of unemployment of workers in agriculture and construction industry" in Agricultural Economics 7/2003.The evaluation ex ante analysis was realised as a part of the bilateral project MATRA "System of regular monitoring, analysis and evaluation of employment policy", which was carried out in 2001-2003 in partnership with the National Labour Office and the Socio-economic Research Institute at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. The analysis has focused on several groups of assessment perspectives such as problems of analysis, the participation of employers and employees in the proposed system of "maintaining wage", implementation aspects, comparison of proposed measure with the measures already realised, submission of alternative solution and evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of the measure.

New Economy deals with competitiveness analysed by international comparative advantage of commodity and regional trade. According to New Economy we are forced to quantify the contribution of tradable goods and services into international competitiveness. New Economy shifts the current national competitiveness into a higher comparative advantage of comparable commodities of the world competitiveness. The methodology of calculation of domestic inputs and outputs is expanded by inputs and outputs of the comparable countries, integrated territories or also international agro-commodity trade.

The article analyses situation on the labour market in 1999-2003, with particular focus on the agricultural population, and explains the pressure that forces agricultural employers to reduce their full-time staff and rely more on the seasonal and short-term employment arrangements. In the recent past, the segment of rotating workers (who take up short-term seasonal jobs between periods of unemployment), has taken on quite a significant dimension. The article also analyses territorial aggregations with high incidence of agricultural unemployment. It points at the regular, seasonal and increased layouts of agricultural workers who end up in the register of unemployed. It identifies the social risk connected with the seasonal type of work arrangements in agriculture from the viewpoint of the labour and social protection and increased social marginalisation of this social group.

This article presents information about the development and the structure of indices regarding natural and legal persons in the years 2000 and 2002. Finally, the development of indices is compared with the year 1990. The article characterizes the development of companies, which are farming land, like cooperatives, business companies, state owned companies and natural persons. It demonstrates the number and structure of companies in the branches of the agri-food sector divided into agriculture, agricultural services and food industry. Moreover, the article presents agricultural land area used by natural and legal persons. This contribution draws information from the results of the questionnaire, which was made by the regional offices of the Ministry of Agriculture. In conclusion, the article suggests the possible orientation of organizations in the short time period

The requirements for compliance with the manufacturing and quality standards and the related investments in the hygienic and structural upgrading of establishments before Slovakia's accession to the European Union meant that the Slovak food processors had to intensify their effort, revise their objectives (where necessary) and increase the volume of investments, particularly during 2003. Many entrepreneurs, particularly in the animal production, decided to go out of business, mainly because the continued operation of obsolete slaughterhouses would require considerable investment effort; at the end of the day, some meat producers closed their slaughter operations and focused on specialised meat processing. Compared with the year before, the profit of food processors declined by 23%. This was due to the faster decline in revenues than expenses, increased cost of revenues, and the reduced output. Although profitable companies still prevailed, the percentage of loss-making companies increased in comparison with the previous year. The starch industry, sugar industry and the confectionery (including coffee substitutes) industry were some of the sectors where all operators were profitable.

This contribution describes eight variants of the distribution of the direct payments and their impact on the farm economies in the years 2004-2006. For this purpose, selective set of 152 farms was divided in accordance with production regions: maize-growing, beet-growing, potato-growing, potato and oats-growing and uplands1. Possible demands for standard direct payments depending on the farm situation in 2002 and demands for payments set by different variants of the simplified system of direct payment distribution were figured to each of observed farms. To be comparable, individual bonuses were converted per 1 hectare of the farmland and to be considered more objectively, the eventual subsidies in terms of HRDP were calculated to the farms. In conclusion, all mentioned variants were compared from the point of view of their impact on the farm economies in different production and climatic regions.

For choosing the best decision in daily agricultural practice, it is very important to formalize the decision process using systems analysis and mathematical methods. Theory of the decision-making under uncertainty or under risk supposes one criterion. In practice, the best solution is chosen under more decision criteria. Decision problem with m alternatives, n states of nature and k criteria has to be solved in this case. Application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for solution of this problem is described in this paper.

The paper deals with the very actual sphere of new conceptions in frame of supplier-customer relations between trade firms and their suppliers. The common idea is management of the distribution channel by the method it would create consumer feeling that the retail shop satisfies his wants and gives him the greatest benefit with the most favourable price. Presumption for realisation of this goal becomes the implementation of a new phenomenon, so-called "Category Management" to current business processes using modern information technology.

Technological changes bring about economic growth. We are now at the beginning of the new phase of global economic development called new economy. The bearers of it are especially information technologies, biotechnology, material, energetic and cosmic technologies. There is reflected the influence of important integration factors as new technologies, high competitiveness (which becomes a necessity), new economic culture in the sphere of government, households and business.

Goal of the paper is to identify opportunities and threats following from the European integration process and influencing the agribusiness entities in the accession country - Slovak Republic. These topics have begun one of the current themes connected with the approaching date of the Slovak Republic accession to the European Union. It is related to the fact, that agrarian but mostly food processing markets have their own specificities, appearing with their typical high sensitivity to the outside environment influence and strong enterprise motivation to competition. In the paper, there are also outlined tasks for business management to analyze external environment, to identify the decisive strengths and weaknesses, to overcome difficulties to adopt European standards and to use opportunities in a wider market place.

The evaluation of financial health of an enterprise becomes very important in Czech businesses. Among other factors, it is so because it is viewed as a precondition for being eligible for some of the EU structural funds. Models of enterprise financial health were created mainly on the basis of objective evaluation of indicators and discrimination analysis for prosperous and bankrupting enterprises. Little attention was paid to the influence of particular indicators on the total value of enterprise financial health. Using the principles of objective and formal adequacy of the indicators, as well as their standardisation, and the methods of multicriterial evaluation together with the determination of particular indicators independence can improve the creation of financial health indicators and facilitate a higher rate of its objectiveness.

Except of 2001 and 2002, the agriculture has produced losses of SKK 38.8 billion over the entire process of transformation. The losses in agriculture were caused by major disparities between the price of supplies to agriculture and prices of agricultural products, plus the restrictive subsidy and loan policy adopted in the early years of the economic reform. The economic situation has improved over the last two years. This was caused by the increase in subsidies, as well as by the continuing restructuring process (sales and liquidation of dubious assets, optimised production), reduction in numbers of loss-making enterprises, by growth and increase in efficiency of production and due to a substantial increase in earnings of many partnerships. However, even despite the positive trends current financial position of most agricultural enterprises does not meet the requirements for development in agriculture, with the rate of TFA (tangible fixed assets) depreciation achieving 50% (of that, depreciation of machinery stands at 70%). The earnings are moderate even in profit making enterprises, with 75% of those enterprises making only up to SKK 1.5 million in earnings.

The paper is a part of solution of the grant awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture (NAZV) No. QF 3276 and analyzes the influence of the price level of imported bottled wine on the competition in the wine-production sector in the Czech Republic. The comparison of the industrial producers' prices in the Czech Republic with the average import prices of bottled wine in particular years brings us to conclusion that a threat for Czech producers is first the price of the imported table wine (white and red) at present. The average import prices of this wine category varied under the minimal average industrial producers' prices in 1998-2003. The average import price of the white table wine in containers up to 2 liters was 19 CZK per liter in 2003 and the minimal average industrial producers' price was 26.90 CZK per liter in the same year. The price level is higher in case of the red table wine in general, but the average annual import prices (in 2003, 23 CZK per liter) also varied under the minimal average industrial producers' prices in all analyzed years (in 2003, 29.70 CZK per liter). The situation is more positive for the Czech wine producers in case of the quality wine. There is a space for an increase in price. The average import prices were by 25 CZK per liter per year higher in average than the maximal industrial producers' prices in the Czech Republic in all analyzed years. However, while the average annual import price of the white quality wine increases (50 CZK per liter in 1998; 93 CZK per liter in 2003) and creates a bigger space for the Czech wine producers in the price policy, the average annual import prices of the red quality wine varied around 80 CZK per liter in all analyzed years.

A full liberalisation of the sugar market is hardly acceptable for Slovakia, because it would significantly affect not only the economic performance and employment across different sectors, but also their production structures, particularly in the farming-intensive regions. We nonetheless believe that the reform is necessary as the sugar sector remains the last unreformed CAP sector in the EU, which puts it in a better position vis-ŕ-vis other producers and farms. On the other hand, the justified claims of producers for the compensation of losses, similarly as the claims laid during the 1992 CAP reform, would disrupt the EAGGF budgetary framework through 2013, because only the claims of Slovak sugar beet producers would amount to some € 200 million during 2010-2015. We believe that the solution and consensus lies in the combination of reforms based on the scenarios of fixed quotas and falling prices, and/or the application of the "Midway situation" after 2011. The alternative setting of quotas, based the administratively assessed production efficiency levels for the individual EU countries, would also be unacceptable for Slovakia. In the recent past, the volume of investments in the Slovak sugar industry has been considerable and the most viable sugar refineries have already emerged from the selection process. The situation in the sugar beet sector is similar and the results of the "Fall in Prices" scenario until 2011 are largely similar to the situation before the accession to the EU.

By progression of the expanding use of the International Accounting Standards, fair value is being pushed ahead instead of standard historical costs. The extension of the International Accounting Standards for financial instruments and long-term assets leads to the publishing of real net income of the enterprise. The necessity to express the fair values of assets for accountancy places specialists of this profession in a new position of professionals having a common language with investors. This trend started deepening when the International Valuation Standards Committee began to co-operate with the International Accounting Standards Committee more closely. This caused the harmonization of basic terms used for valuation of property.

The high rate of the Stagnosols and Gleysols in the East Slovak Lowland substantially influences the potential utilisation of the existing agro-ecosystems. On the basis of the pedologic and informative system of Slovak soils investigation, we determined the possible structural, productive and economic parameters of the soil representatives in the East Slovak Lowland, its districts and soil-ecological regions with the help of geographic informative systems. 46.9% of the soils are not profitable for the plant growing without subsidies. At the average expense per one hectare of agricultural soil 10 227 SKK, it is possible to expect the yields of approximately 10 295 SKK/ha, which means profit without subsidies 68 SKK/ha (profitability rate 0.67%). The best natural and economic results in plant production can be expected in the Michalovce and Trebišov districts and the soil-ecological regions of Ondavská rovina (Ondava flatland), Laborecká rovina (Laborec flatland) and Kapušanské pláňavy (Kapušany welds).

This article sets out to analyze the value added generation in the Slovak agrarian sector at the time of the accession to the EU compared to which we are severely lagging behind in the overall generation of gross value added. A more detailed analysis of the value added generation over the recent years in a group of agricultural enterprises being legal entities indicates that the enterprise efficiency expressed in terms of value added generation is markedly differentiated depending on the natural conditions of the locations where individual businesses operate. Great differences in the added value between enterprises can also be found in the group of enterprises having the same natural conditions. The reason for this is a differentiation in the degree to which intensification inputs are utilized due to high prices, lack of financial resources, inefficient combination of inputs used and insufficient recognition of the importance of the value added by managers, particularly in planning of production structures and production finalization grade.

The article summarises the results of the analysis of value added (VA) in agriculture and food industry and the share of intermediate consumption in the value added. The results show that during 1993-2000, the Slovak agricultural sector (farming, hunting, forestry and fisheries), where farming is clearly dominant, together with the construction sector, reported the most significant decline in their relative contribution to the overall value added created in the national economy, whereas the contribution of market services increased. The moderate increase (1998, 1999) in the contribution of the food sector to the total value added in the national economy, as well as to industrial production (2000), has been brought to a halt and, eventually, began deflating. The tendency of declining participation of the agricultural sector in value added was also typical for the EU member states and for the CEFTA countries. Agriculture remains dominant in terms of its contribution to value added in the agri-food sector (54.5% in the year 2000). In the category of land-farming holdings, the share of intermediate consumption in value added increased (both in co-operatives and business companies, whether loss-making or profitable). The farmers in mountainous areas spent per 1 SKK of value added 0.65-1.42 SKK more of intermediate consumption than farmers in the maize production area and 0.54-1.32 SKK more than farmers in the sugar-beet production area. In the production of foodstuffs, beverages and tobacco processing, which is more demanding in terms of consumed inputs than agricultural production (the same is true for developed economies), the ratio between intermediate consumption and value added differed depending on the branch concerned. Agriculture was one of the most demanding sectors in terms of fixed asset investments necessary to generate value added. The initial decline was brought to stop in 1998 and the relative share of fixed assets (FA) in value added (VA) started to increase, particularly in the year 2000, mainly under the influence of increased support to farmers' capital investments. Although the creation of value added in agricultural co-operatives initially demanded more investments in fixed assets than it was the case in farming business companies, the difference narrowed over the time. The group of loss-making entities reported the FA/VA ratios twice as high as the group of profitable entities, which sends a signal to the former to revise the structure of their production and to improve management practices. Similarly as in the case of intermediate consumption, also the FA/VA ratio increased as the production conditions deteriorated. The ratios in the production of foodstuffs and beverages (without tobacco processing) were significantly lower than those in the farming sector. In 1999, the lowest FA/VA ratio occurred in the production of durable bakery products and the highest in the production of fruit and vegetable juices.

The article reflects recent developments in factors affecting business behaviour both externally and internally. Derived form these changes, business managers' competences are assessed in accordance with changing requirements on managers' behaviour. Competences are then described in terms of specific and technical competences.

The paper analyses formation of specialized activities of Slovak agrarian services. The paper focuses attention on the definition of agrarian services, evaluation of their position and progress of their transformation, their quantitative development and distribution in the regions of the Slovak Republic, as well as on their economic results during the period from 1995 to 2001. Biological, technical, and other specialized services significantly influence the reproduction process of the plant and animal production even in the period of European integration.

Competitiveness can be analysed at various levels of the economy: at the product level, the enterprise level, the sector level, or the level of the entire economy. Several measures exist for each of these levels. This paper focuses on those used for the analysis of enterprises, particularly agricultural enterprises farming in Slovakia. Our research has been done on a selected sample of agricultural enterprises farming in Slovakia. Using "Recourse Cost Ratio" (RCR coefficient) has allowed investigating the differences in competitiveness between co-operatives and business companies, between the enterprises farming in better and worse soil and natural conditions as well as among various size groups of 111 agricultural enterprises. The research has proved that the optimal values of RCR coefficient revealed, that the common feature of all the competitive enterprises was their type of production oriented on solely plant production, possibly plant and meat production (there was no case of competitive enterprise with solely meat production). As for the different legal forms, we found out that more competitive were business companies than co-operatives. Considering different soil and natural conditions, there were better results observed in the group of enterprises farming in better soil and natural conditions.

The paper is examining the productivity of production factors in the EU-15 and some of the New Member States. International comparison shows that Slovakia is considerably lagging behind the EU-15 countries in the productivity of land and productivity of labour, but it is rather competitive in productivity of the fixed and variable capital. In order to get comparable data, the author adjusted figures on production of agricultural activities published in the Economic Accounts of Agriculture, and excluded the influence of different price - and support levels in the EU-15 and New Member Countries.

The economic importance of agricultural sector in Slovakia declined during transition period. There are several reasons for this: declining terms of agricultural trade, extreme weather, transformation of agricultural sector, unclear property rights in transition period, short-run privatization distortions, transformation of up and downstream sectors, world market fluctuation, decline of real wages, low stability of agricultural policy and other. The development in economic market was paralleled by activity in political market. After initial liberalization, agricultural protection subsequently increased. The EU accession influences both levels of protection as well as instruments of agricultural policy.

The main aims of this study are to describe how much the economic role of agriculture decreased, and this decrease comes mainly from some economic difficulties, for example weak income position of producers based on weak capital accumulation. So agricultural producers need financial supports to improve their production and favourable credit conditions. In 1990s during the last decade, the role of agriculture in the national economy decreased, which contributed to its decreasing share in GDP and real value of agricultural GDP. In 2001, in spite of the fact that the plant production considerably increased and the animal husbandry stagnated, the whole agricultural production volume was by 20 percent under its level of 1989. Finally by the end of 2001, the share of agriculture declined to 4 percent of GDP and together with food industry, their share was about 7 percent. The agricultural scissors increased considerably, namely from 126.5 percent in 1992 to 138.4 percent in 2001.The income conditions made a significant influence on the capacity of the agricultural sector in fields of investments and accumulation. The main problem was the decline of real value of investments. For example the real value of investments in 2001 had not implemented half of investments realised in 1989. This situation showed the low level of technological and technical development in the agricultural sector during a longer period, than a decade. It was important to increase different kinds of supports for agricultural producers, for example: export subsidies, interests of credits, supports for establishing new farmland structure. The share of supports for agricultural production and food industry was 12-14 percent of the two sectors' GDP in 1990s. The development of the main factors of agricultural incomes was determined by index calculations based on the data of the APEH (Hungarian Tax and Financial Supervising Office) and EAA (Economic Accounts for Agriculture). The supports are needed, which are as follows: based on the APEH data, the profit before tax of 23 billion HUF in 1997 decreased to the loss-level of 8 billion HUF by the end of 1990s. The main aim for agricultural producers was to increase their capital accumulation to implement improvement of production in order to be competitive on the world and domestic markets. There is a difficulty that at the end of 1990s, only about 30 percent of the supports was directly provided for agricultural producers. In Hungary, without taxes and other different deprivals, the current value of production supports was over the level of incomes obtained in agricultural sector, but according to the calculation methods of the OECD, the value of PSE (PSE= Producer Support Estimate) index was at a very low level and it had a decreasing tendency, which could not ensure enough income for agricultural producers in Hungary. So the development of agricultural production cannot be realised additionally to the unfavourable background conditions for the sector. Comparing the support structure experienced in the OECD with that in Hungary, it can be declared, that within the PSE (Producer Support Estimate) during 1997-2000, the MPS (Market Price Support) declined, similarly it was in Hungary. In the OECD, the 8-9 percent share of payments based on input use has remained at s