Fulltext search in archive

Production of industrial feeds for livestock and pets is an integral part of food products' production. Production of feeds thus shares in sales worth twenty billion CZK. The paper describes and analyses the basic external environment factors operating in this sector. Most important external environment factors were identified using Porter's model of five movement forces of competition within an industry. Threat of entry of new companies in the sector can be expected especially from abroad. Capital investments required in this sector are very high and therefore only imports of finished product can be expected or direct purchase of an already built operation. Existing manufacturers also have a competitive advantage in certain brand-loyalty and market position. An important force within the industry is represented by suppliers, quality and price of raw materials. Most important inputs for production of feeding mixtures represent cereals and an ingredient with oil seed, and the price of both commodities is rather unstable and is expected to grow. In the analysed sector there operate many companies, none of them having dominant position. Major companies are briefly described in this paper as MIKROP Čebín, VVS Verměřovice, ZZN Pelhřimov, Tekro.
Production of feed mixtures is significantly influenced by livestock development. Unfortunately, there is a gradual reduction in livestock numbers in all categories, above all pigs and cattle. Feed manufacturers should focus on the expansion of other parts of the market - feeds for pets, fish, etc. It is arguable that the role of substitutes in the industrial feed production is not high. Full-value substitute for the industry does not exist.

In the year 2001, the European Comission started to revise the legislation Solvency I and to implement a new approach called Solvency II. The regulation called Solvency II is based on regulation considering management of risks of commercial insurance companies. Changes on financial markets and the contemporary financial crisis made financial authorities to formulate principles of regulation based on risk management. Commercial insurance companies across Europe will face a considerable amount of work to be ready for requirements related with Solvency II implementation in the year 2012.
Rating agencies, regulators and investors today are demanding that insurers provide detailed assessments of their risk tolerance and quantify the adequacy of their economic capital. To complete such assessments requires a credible baseline for underwriting volatility. Modern portfolio theory for assets teaches that increasing the number of stocks in a portfolio will diversify and reduce the portfolio risk, but will not eliminate risk completely, the systemic market risk remains. In the same way, insurers can reduce underwriting volatility by increasing account volume, but they cannot reduce their volatility to zero. A certain level of systemic insurance risk will always remain, due to factors such as for example the underwriting cycle, macroeconomic factors, legal changes and weather.
This presented scientific paper focuses on an analysis of specific goals of the regulation Solvency II and the structure of second pillar of the three-pillar construction (similarity with Basel II banking regulation) of Solvency II. The paper was written as part of research project MSM 6215648904, carried out by the Faculty of Business and Economics, under the title "The Czech Republic in the processes of integration and globalization, and the development of the agriculture and service sector in the new conditions of the integrated European market", following the goals and methodology of the research project.

The contribution deals with the principles as well as the economic implications of changes in the agriculture entrepreneurial environment. It denotes, that the vision of the European model of multifunctional agriculture is ever more frequently confronted with new challenges invoked by acceleration of globalization processes. Those qualitatively new requirements to agricultural enterprises behaviour as well as to the state intervention, strictly speaking the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in the branch in a framework of the global markets development is notified there. On the basis of analyses of individual development stages and the manner, in which this sector has been legislatively and economically regulated, it is possible to document in the history of CAP EU the radical development of the European agrarian sector in general and how the CAP reacted to this development. The development concerned both the very agriculture and the agrarian sector and its economic position and changes of the social environment itself and the selection of adequate regulation tools corresponding to the environmental development and changes of situation. We can see that significant regional and structural differences are still hidden behind aggregated data about average economic performance of the agrarian sector of the EU and that different approach and priorities for solutions to individual issues can be chosen, provided that the issues have been identified and assessed in an objective manner. At the sometime these findings can be an opportunity to consider to what extent the individual member states are able to take over the existing rules and use conditions imposed by directives of the Community and to what extent we are able to actively assess the situation of the world agrarian markets and adequately respond to the development of the economic environment in broader international contexts. Amendments of the above mentioned conditions become new impulses determining the direction and dynamics of development of the economic environment; if we intend to preserve or improve our competitive strength, it is necessary to adequately respond to them.

This paper deals with the dual farm structure, with a closer focus on the transitional economies of the EU. There are characterized and analyzed the factors which have a significant impact on both small family farms and the large agricultural enterprises. The part of the analysis is also the demonstration of these factors in transition economies, where the changes manifest themselves most strongly in present agribusiness. Assumptions of the development for agriculture in the early transition period significantly differed from the subsequent actual development of this sector in transition economies. Present a very diverse structure of agricultural holdings in individual economies involves extremes. Significantly different is the size of farms and their organizations. These differences are documented on the example of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. An important role in terms of farm size play returns of scale and flexibility. The determinants of flexibility are demonstrated by the small Polish family farms.