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The paper compares the main factors influencing the key supplier-industries for brewing and wine-production in the Czech Republic - hop-growing and winegrowing - and it is a part of a more extensive research focused especially on the processing industries, and the specifics of their analyses. The importance of hop-growing and winegrowing is based on the fact that they significantly influence not only the final product, but also the competitiveness in the successive industries of the product vertical. Similar influence within the examined industries is evidenced in the close interconnection with the above-mentioned (main) successive processing-part, and in the complicated position of the small growers. Differences are shown especially in the flexibility of reaction to the changes of demand for final products of the successive industries, and also in the position of both industries in the Czech Republic, and in the world.

The area of vineyards has increased to 19 261.5 hectares and the number of wine producers to 18.292 by 1 May 2004. This branch needs a long-term study that will lead to the establishment of the new politics for viniculture and wine-growing, related to the needs of the region. The trends are compared to the main European producer - France, and another country from the so called "New World"- the South African Republic. The researches are focused on the consumption of wine by population, share in the gross national product, employment in this branch, areas of vineyards, and number of wine-growers.

The presented research was done in two different regions in Slovakia, characterized by different soil and natural conditions and also production and economic results. The micro-economic analysis was aiming not only at private farmers but also at other legal entities using land for production of agricultural products. The first monitored group consisted of 412 private farmers, farming in average 43.2 ha of agricultural land. The second group consisted of 150 businesses, having 1 866 ha of agricultural land in average. The paper also shows different problems of restructuring land markets in some countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

The article is oriented towards justification of the necessity of company cost system administration in the environment of the software managerial information system. The competitiveness of Slovak agricultural companies within the EU and global markets need to extend the the content of company cost system, detailing its structure, new quality of the company cost analysis, their multidimensional monitoring and analysis. Providing current and relevant information about costs is considered to be an advantage of the company in the competitive environment. The application of managerial systems in the area of costs enables to achieve this advantage.

The Slovak milk industry has overcome substantial changes during last period and has achieved many criteria comparable with the Western Europe. From this viewpoint, we can state that the quality of milk and milk products, technological equipment and labour efficiency has been improved. Entering of the foreign capital into the Slovak milk processing enterprises increases the quality of products and the volume of processed raw material. The foreign investors choose Slovak enterprises for many reasons. These are: the limited assortment of milk products, cheap labour force in comparison with its value in the EU, cheaper material for production and the necessary energy. In the world, the process of internationalization is necessary together with fusion, strategic alliances and acquisitions, including the private or co-operative companies. The biggest foreign strategic investors are in the following joint stock companies, for example - Liptovská mliekareň, a.s. Liptovský Mikuláš (Bongrain France), Milsy, a.s. Bánovce nad Bebravou (Lactoprot Austria), Rajo, a.s. Bratislava (Meggle Austria and Germany), former Zempmilk, a.s. Michalovce, now Syráreň Bel Slovensko, a.s. (Fromageries Bel France) and others. These companies include more than 52% of the number of big industrial milk processing enterprises in total and during the last period they bought more than 52.5% of the whole milk production in Slovakia.

The Internet is a main element of development of the information society, particularly in Europe, where it can help to remove national boundaries, and create a truly European economics and information society. The information society represents the most fundamental change in our life, with huge opportunities for all people. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) allow for new forms of partnership between companies, suppliers and consumers, improving the way they work and the products and services they offer. Electronic Commerce as a general concept covers any form of business transaction that is conducted electronically, using telecommunications and computer networks. Such transactions occur between companies, between companies and their customers, or between companies and public administration.

In the past ten years, meat and meat products consumption has changed dramatically. It has been caused by price and non-price factors. This article gives a brief recapitulation of the development of the consumption of meat and meat products and identifies the key factors which, in the past ten years, have had a major impact on this development. This article presents results of the secondary data analysis and the results of an inquiry into meat and meat products consumer behaviour carried out in the late 2004.

The paper is focused on the analysis of the wine demand and chosen factors which influence the wine demand in the Czech Republic, in Slovakia, in Austria, and in Germany. In the Czech Republic, the wine consumption per inhabitant went up slightly in 1994-2003, the wine demand has a rising trend. The wine demand has the rising trend in Germany as well. In Slovakia, the year wine consumption per inhabitant decreased by 14.9% from 1994 to 2003; in Austria by 7.7%. There is a downward trend of development in these countries. The influence of the analyzed factors on the development of the wine demand is different in the particular countries. The dependence is possible to follow at the total level of incomes in comparison with the consumer's price of wine.

This paper deals with the meat industry in the Czech Republic, the equipment which is used for meat cutting and processing for sale and for production of smoked goods. It determines individual categories of this equipment according to the use and describes materials used for manufacturing of clothing of butchers and also the complementary tools improving labour safety during technology operations. Next it presents materials used for making metal tools and describes the situation in the market of butcher´s equipment in the Czech Republic.

The paper deals with the very actual sphere of using new tool within the frame of entire supply chain from manufacturer towards consumer. The common idea is a management of the flow of goods by the method which should be enable more effective identification, control, tracking and many follow-ups processes in the distribution channel. Even in retail store, the final consumer could use this instrument for his/her increased satisfactory and comfort during his/her shopping. Presumption for realisation of this goal becomes the implementation of a new phenomenon RFID (radio frequency identification) into current operations performed throughout the all levels of value chain with using modern information technology.

The important part of the increase of regional potential is the farming of the land fund. The economic conditions for its utilisation have been already prepared. They are based especially on the drawing of funds of the European Union, namely for the period after the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union and for the years 2007-2013. The measures concerning the land are included in the prepared programme documentation, especially in the Horizontal Rural Development Plan (HRDP) and in the Operational Programme "Agriculture". The farmers will obtain the direct payment per area (SAPS) in addition to supports on foregoing measures. The requirements for environment-friendly farming of land will be increased in the future. The economic conditions for next period will concentrate on these priorities. It will concern the securing of public benefit contributing to the sustainable development of rural areas. The project assurance of these trends and their regional monitoring and evaluation will be important.

The ownership of land has always been the important precondition for lasting socio-economic situation and the development of the country. Despite that, there is a process of learning going on in practically all the new member countries, which are still learning that productive ability of the agriculture depends in a big degree on the stability of ownership of land and its tranquil farming. Despite many fundamental and substantial differences, we can say that hitherto development in land law was tremendous. But it also follows that significant social and economic divergences have not made full liberalisation of the land market possible without "yes, but".

Virtual portal (VIPO) is designed to provide users with a single-point access to information, and tools to support their decision-making. VIPO illustrates the best practice presented in terms of case studies coded along three dimensions: field, domain and objectives. The second major source of knowledge is based on software packages made available to users including tutor support. The third part of the portal provides useful links to the existing databases which have the potential to facilitate decision making in agribusiness. All three pillars of the VIPO are complemented by on-line consultancy services.

Knowledge Economy is an education related to the declaration and contents of the Lisbon Strategy - The Perfect Europe and a follow up strategy of the competitiveness of member states of the EU by the year 2010. The term knowledge economy can be defined as "an education about problems of upbringing and educating students, a professional education of managers and population, an education about strategies of being competitive as well as an education about reality and contents of innovating an information society". The application of the Knowledge Economy in the content of education into research and workplace consulting enriches economic theories as well as gradation of agrarian economic in the field of competitiveness and information technology. The Knowledge Economy means a world repute and maximalisation of international relations and at the same time a vision of catching up with the leaders of world economies. Present educational systems, a general and specific education of new member states, is short-sightedly oriented at regional and local education with the effort to educate "an euroengineer, an eurodoctor, etc.", into the expansion of new faculties and their entitling as "European studies, integration studies, some subjects are also innovatived with a modified agrarian and business union politics", which I myself consider to be an "educational lag behind" which is the antithesis to the attributes of catching up with the more developed.

In the market economy, agriculture ranks among the important political and economic issues. Risks associated with agricultural activity can be catastrophic. For farmers and farms, damages resulting from materialized risks represent significant and existence-threatening problems. For the state, damages in agriculture can endanger the food supply chain, cause fluctuation in employment or jeopardize the state's foreign-policy position due to lack of self-sufficiency. This is why it is necessary to discuss the methods and ways to deal with the problem, to eliminate agricultural risks or to minimize their occurrence and materialization. One of the possible ways is insurance. With regard to these facts, the author attempts to make an analysis of the possible ways to eliminate risks that endanger agricultural production and, according to this analysis, to describe the basic approaches to minimizing or eliminating the materialization of risks associated with agricultural activity. Subsequently, the author focuses on agricultural insurance systems in the countries of the European Union, and on the present-day situation in the field of agricultural insurance in the Czech Republic.

The article presents the analysis of regional distribution for the approved and completed projects by 2004 under the SAPARD programme in the Slovak Republic. The distribution of funding strongly favoured powerful (innovative) business subjects which increased their competitiveness and gained the "advantage of technology advance" (which, in time may change into the rent of technology advance) associated with growth in labour productivity and high probability of investment return. The implementation of the SAPARD programme provides a strong impetus to the restructuring of businesses in agrifood industry, it accelerates and improves the selection among the businesses and economical differentiation. The bulk of the approved funding for projects under the individual measures for agriculture and processing industry within the SAPARD programme was distributed among western and southern regions of Slovakia. The implementation of the SAPARD programme, on one hand, has helped to reduce regional disparities in the vertical spatial approach by the diversion of the bulk of funding to the economically less favoured southern areas of Slovakia lagging behind in terms of infrastructure. On the other hand, though, it has increased the regional disparities in the horizontal spatial view with regard to the fact that most of the funding is spent in the developed regions of western Slovakia. Eastern Slovakia thus has become a disadvantaged and minority recipient of the financial assistance under this programme.

Social-political transition in the former socialist countries led to a new understanding of borders and created the prerequisites for renaissance and significant activation of the cross-border co-operation. This way, Slovakia along with other countries joined the Euro-regional movement in Europe, which spread since the end of 60-ies through Western-European countries. Formation and institutionalisation of Euro-regional relations, links and co-operation was initially hindered by a whole range of obstacles, including the ones with political background. It was obvious mainly in Slovakia where it influenced the existence and potential establishment of new Euro-regional associations. Rebirth of the Euro-regional activities started after 1998. Currently, there are Euro-regions practically operating along the entire Slovak border with its neighbours. The extent and form of institutionalisation and professional staffing varies. Activities of Euro-regions are merely based on projects which bring funding. Projects are broadly oriented, while the prevailing focus is currently on the economic activation of Euro-regions. There is a lack of partner co-operation and co-ordination of activities between countries and their activities, including cross-border activities and activities of Euro-regions. Euro-regional activities play a significant role in activation of border areas in the country, while they have a complementary character for the regional state policy and regional policy of self-governed regions which is being formulated.

Transformation process and restructuring of the existing enterprises started in the Slovak Republic in 1990, what influenced all companies alike as well as rural households. Business companies and private farms were established. Private activity in agricultural sector became a dominant source of income for many rural households. In 2000, there were 21 thousands private farms registered in Slovakia with the average size of 10.4 hectares. There is also significant group of unregistered farms that get part of their income from agriculture.

Agriculture as a sector of national economy shows a permanent loss (except the year 1995 and 2000). The investment volume and number of workers decreases. The necessary resources for businesses development are not created at the general level. Introducing of new technologies for restructuring appears as problematic from this point of view. The stated results of the sector of agriculture stem from the average data of the monitored set of enterprises collected by the RIAE. Evaluation objectivity of the agricultural enterprises economic results is influenced by the quality of the database and of the used evaluation method. In the contribution, the method of the financial analysis indices, economic normal and the indicators of the enterprise financial situation prediction were utilised for evaluation. For the analysis, own set of monitored enterprises is used and also its comparison with the selected results of the RIAE.

The paper concentrates on analytical findings of the RIAE in the sphere of problems associated with the readiness of Czech agriculture for the EU accession. An analysis of the present situation of Czech agriculture is followed by an assessment of potential impacts of the EU conditions on the economic position of the main agricultural commodities. The predictions are conceived by variants, because the future parameters of the CAP are still under negotiations. The conclusions are oriented on the summary assessment of the readiness of Czech agriculture for the EU accession.

Agriculture, like all sectors of the economy, needs credit for its development. Experience in OECD countries demonstrates that in a competitive financial environment, profitable agriculture can obtain the credit it needs. Due to the difficulties faced by farmers in transition economies in obtaining access to credit, the OECD has periodically called upon member and transition experts to reflect upon the issues at stake and to share relevant lessons and best practices in the field of agricultural finance and credit infrastructure. This paper reviews the key messages from past work on this subject, including some observations from the Czech experience. These messages pertain to: the essential framework conditions for access to credit; the role of government policy-making, and possible channels for financing the agriculture and rural sectors. The paper then briefly suggests some linkages and implications that may be drawn between the EU enlargement and these three themes.

The sugar industry in the Czech Republic is one of the branches of food production that since the end of nineties has been strongly protected by agricultural policy. Here, we will deal with the question how the Czech agricultural policy affected the competitiveness of the sugar industry during transformation. From the analysis, it can be derived that not only agricultural measures but also organisational changes inside the enterprises, as well as modernisation and increasing capacity of plants that all took place before the enforced political aid, supported the stabilisation of sugar beet farming and the sugar industry in the Czech Republic and its competitiveness in the national market.

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.

The article summarizes findings drawn form the research carried on within the European project "Best e-European Practices" with a focus on digital SMEs only. Case studies are used to describe good practices. Cases studies are coded structurally using a set of indicators for each success factor and thus provide for learning of the potential users. Synthesis and generalization has been done on factors explaining motivations for introducing e-practices, the results firms seek to achieve and the benefits from the adoption of digital technologies.

Nowadays, many enterprises face the problem of implementing their enterprise information system in order to keep pace with their competition. It holds generally for all types of enterprises, as e.g. manufacturing, agricultural, trading, financial, transportation, educational, etc. This paper deals with the basic rules for building an information system of the enterprise, particularly of medium or large ones. The attention is focussed at the problems each enterprise must address before starting an IS project. These are mainly the enterprise information policy planning, project feasibility and forms of its management.

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).

The paper is oriented on the argumentation of real and potential problems and challenges, which are a basis for the formation of a new strategy for the Czech agriculture and for a new conception of the Czech agricultural policy for the period after EU accession. Based on the arguments, goals of the new strategy are derived, to be discussed with a broader professional public. Possible fields of measures of the government to provide the strategic goals are presented to the conclusion.

The paper is briefly outlining the expected changes in the economic and financial pre-conditions for Slovak farming during the period after the country's accession to the EU. The starting point of authors reasoning is the current piece of knowledge, saying that the economic performance of individual farms is widely differentiated and the ability of individual farms to meet the future challenges and to use the opportunities is very unevenly distributed among them. Also the competitiveness if a particular agricultural commodity varies. Despite of expectations concerning the price development after accession, not all commodities will be competitive on the single market. The economic situation of farms will considerably benefit from direct payments. Nevertheless, the fact that the Slovak government opted for the Single Area payment Scheme will have some adverse effects on possible gains from payments in productive regions and in farms with high output performance. In order to mitigate these redistribution effects the author is proposing to implement a different scheme of allocation of national top-up is to direct payments. In the final part of his paper the author gives a comprehensive review on payments aimed to promote rural development and payments from the Guidance section of the EAGGF targeted at enhancement of farm re-structuring.

This article presents holistic concepts of companies' assessments intended for two basic groups of users: internal and external. Companies' assessments concentrated only on financial perspective are very single-track and already obsolete and therefore, further perspectives are used to complete companies' assessments. Among concepts intended for internal assessments, the so-called balanced scorecard approach has developed since late nineties. This concept helps in company's strategic management. Moreover, there is a concept of EFQM Excellence model introduced at the beginning of nineties for assessing applications for the European Quality Award, but has become widely used for company assessment and management. The third mentioned concept is intended for credit risk assessment is credit rating. The development of methodology of the holistic assessment of Czech farm businesses may be a good tool for different external and internal users.

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.