Changes of the varietal structure of vineyards in the Czech Republic Helena CHLÁDKOVÁ1, Pavel TOMŠÍK1, Jií SEDLO2 1Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic 2Winegrower Association of the Czech Republic, Velké Bílovice, Czech Republic Abstract: Th e paper describes changes in the structure of varieties grown in the Czech Republic. Th e authors examine the development taking place in this domain within the last 14 years (i.e. from 1997 to 2010). Th e paper analyses the reasons of these changes and tries to describe the future development expected after 2010. Th e article also examines the cost and profi tability of growing grapes and wine prices. Th e current production potential of the Czech Republic is 19 633.45 hec- tares of vineyards. As compared with 1960, the total acreage of vineyards increased nearly three times and the number of the most frequent varieties has also increased. As far as the percentages of Müller Th urgau, Green Veltliner, Italian Riesling and Sankt Laurent varieties is concerned, it is anticipated that their acreages will further decrease, whereas those of Rhein Riesling, Sauvignon, Lemberger and Zweigeltrebe are expected to grow. Th e results from the survey of consumer behaviour in the wine market in the CR point to the connection between the structure of the vineyards and consumer demand. Lem- berger, Cabernet Sauvignon, Müller Th urgau, Grüner Veltliner, Pinot Blanc, Saint Laurent, Blue Portugal, Chardonnay, Ries- ling and Bohemia Sekt have been the most popular varieties of the market research. Key words: grapevine varieties, popularity of varieties, structure, trends, vineyard area, wine prices “Grapevine is the mother of wine, land is its father changes as far as the Czech wine producers were and the weather is its fate” (French proverb). concerned. As mentioned by Škorpíková (2004), it After 1989, Czech viticulture passed through a is necessary to monitor and evaluate continuously period of marked changes that concerned crucial the impacts of the Common Market Organization and strategic decisions about the choice of the (CMO) for wine in the wine market in the individual prospective assortment of the grapevine varieties countries. This problem concerns not only the Czech and the structure of vineyards. The most important Republic, but also Spain (Bortoló 2009) and it is quite changes took place within the period of 2000–2004. natural that these changes were influenced also by This restructuralisation was induced by the economic the fluctuations taking place in the preferences of the and political changes of 1989, which enabled the individual varieties and by the changes in consumers introduction of the Act on viticulture and winemaking, demand for red and white wines. 1995. In 2004, the Czech Republic entered into the The attractiveness of the industry under study raised European Union and for that reason, it was necessary an interest to study it not only from the traditional to amend and pass the new Act No. 3321/2004 Coll., point of view of the technological issues, but also on viticulture and wine making. The Czech national from that of management and economics (Tomšík et legislation on viticulture was further specified and al. 2006). Černíková (2004) compared the Czech and during this process, several related acts were passed Austrian wine markets and investigated endogenous by the Parliament (e.g. Act No. 179/2005 Coll., Act factors influencing the overall situation in this industry. No. 444/2005 Coll., Act No. 215/2006 Coll., Act No. Some other authors compared situations existing in 311/2008 Coll., Act No. 227/2009 Coll., and Act No. the Czech Republic and Slovakia (Duda 2004), Spain 281/2009 Coll., which all amended the preceding (Hrabalová 2004), and Germany (Černíková and Žufan legal standards). In this context, it is necessary to 2004). Bentzen and Smith (2009) corroborated the emphasize that all these legislative changes concerning justification of such studies in their paper about wine viticulture and oenology resulted in deep positive growing in a small country (Denmark). Chládková Supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (Projects No. MSM 6215648904) and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic (Projects No. QF 3276). AGRIC. ECON. CZECH, 58, 2012 (12): 557–565 557 (2005b) analyzed the structure of vineyards in the within the last two decades, we have used the data Czech Republic and paid attention to future prospects about the percentages of white and red grapes and of the Czech wine market. Some problems of the about their average prices as collected by the Czech world production of wine were investigated by Italian and Moravian Union of Viticulturists and Wine Makers scientists Bacarella and Corona 2008. It was (and and, later on, by the Winegrowers Union of the Czech still is) necessary to study and evaluate the effects Republic and their members. Estimations of the future of moving forces of this industry, above all of the development of the varietal structure of vineyards bargaining power of sellers and buyers operating in the Czech Republic (Sedlo et al. 2011; Sedlo and inside and outside the wine industry. According to Tomšík 2012) were performed on the base of the Žufan (2004), it is also necessary to compare wine data about the actual changes in percentages of the with such substitutes as beer and to perform analyses individual varieties and about the average age of the of the situation in viticulture and hop-growing and existing plantations (2010); these data were stored in brewing industry. As far as the foreign authors are the Register of Vineyards kept at the CISTA. Because concerned, problems associated with wine substitutes the development of the varietal structure of vineyards were analysed by Anderson (2009). ran approximately linearly, then the appropriate trend The main aim of this paper was to evaluate changes in function is the straight line. the strategic decision-making concerning the varietal Also there has been used the trend cycle function structure of Czech vineyards, especially within the last yi = b1 × ti + b0, where y = share of the acreage of the two decades (till 2010). At the same time, we also tried specific variety and x = time. The parameters of the to predict the developmental trends in percentages trend line b0, b1 come from the system of equations: of the most frequent varieties grown in Czech and Moravian vineyards. To reach this objective, it was ¦¦yt nbo b1 t 0 necessary to evaluate the crucial transformation that 2 occurred in the wine industry within the period of ¦¦¦ytt b0 t b1 t 0 the last 25 years (i.e. the political and, subsequently, also legislative changes) and to assess if they were With the solution of these equations, we obtain caused by the changes of other factors functioning specific values of the parameters b0 and b1. Then we in the exogenous environment of the wine industry. can express the specific equation of trend line. These findings were complemented by the selected results of the market research on the topic “Consumer MATERIAL AND METHODS behaviour in the market of wine CR”. These results include the processed primary data acquired from The evaluation of the development and changes in 1000 respondents from the whole Czech Republic. the varietal structure of vineyards was performed on Half of the data (i.e. 500 respondents) were based on the data stored in the register of vineyards kept at phone questioning, and half of them on direct personal the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in questioning. The respondents were selected according Agriculture (CISTA). This register was established to the quota principle, where the quota-attributes in accordance with the provisions of the Act No. were gender, age, education and geography, i.e. the 115/1995 Coll., on viticulture and wine making, residence of the respondents (Chládková 2005b). which entered into the legal force on September 1, 1995 and, subsequently, the pursuant provisions of the Act No. 321/2004 Coll., on viticulture and wine RESULTS AND DISCUSSION making as amended. In this case, the reliable data could be used since the year 1997. All these data were In 1995, the Act on viticulture and wine growing also confronted with the information of the Czech created conditions for qualitative changes of the Statistical Office about the acreages of vineyards produced wine and due to this fact, it was also necessary production in the Czech Republic. The investigation to change the shares of the individual varieties and was focused on the period 1997–2010. Domestic the structure of the varietal assortment. Earlier, the producers are influenced by costs, revenues, the main (and preferred) objective of wine growers was purchase price of grapes and the selling price of the yield of grapes, not their quality. Since 1995, wine. The source for this data is the Czech Statistical the sugar content in grapes has become the main Office and the Institute of Agricultural Economics and parameter of the quality of grapes and, moreover, Information. When evaluating the causes of changes due to a gradual intensification and openness of the taking place in the varietal structure of vineyards international market, the consumers could compare 558 AGRIC. ECON. CZECH, 58, 2012 (12): 557–565 18,00018 000 16,00016 000 14,00014 000 12,00012 000 10,00010 000 ha 8,0008 000 6,0006 000 4,0004 000 2,0002 000 00 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 Year Figure 1. Development of the acreage of producing vineyards in the Czech Republic (in hectares) Source: own calculations different varietal wines originating from many wine and the creation of new jobs not only in the countries of the world.