The impact of global trends on Czech trade in agrarian and foodstuff products

Abstract

The Czech retail market has changed its structure and form during the last twenty years. The influence of two factors is especially significant. The first one is the growth of internationalization and the second one is market concentration growth. The significant opening process of the Czech economy, accompanied by the liberalization of the Czech market process, enabled the international retail companies to penetrate the national retail market. The most powerful European retail companies are now present in the Czech market. The available shopping area/cap is also one of the largest in Europe. Retail chains have taken a dominant position in the market, and because of their market power they are able to determine trade/contract conditions for domestic suppliers. Retail chains' sales have been constantly growing. While in 2006 the value of sales was about 258.5 billion CZK, in 2008 it was about 312.2 billion CZK. The impact of the economic crisis on the Czech retail market has not been as stressful as it was abroad. In 2009, a slowdown of the Czech retail market was recorded, but the value of sales decreased by only 3 billion CZK (in comparison with 2008). The highest sales (59 billion CZK) were recorded by the Lidl & Schwarz-Gruppe, which is the owner of two dominant retail chains in the Czech retail market (Kauf land and Lidl). The main aim of the paper is to evaluate the selected aspects, which have been influencing the relationship between multinational companies (retail companies - supermarkets and hypermarkets) and local (Czech) suppliers of agrarian and foodstuff products (farmers and foodstuff companies). The paper analyses the problem of abuse of multinational companies' significant market power in relation to their suppliers. Based on a pilot project, the efficiency of market force law, and its use in practice, are analysed. The main idea is to analyse the following problems: the impact of 30 days payment period for goods delivered, under cost prices required by retail companies, and the structure of fees and charges required by retail companies.