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Friday saw major producers of spirits in the Czech Republic announce their half year results. While for many sales and profits have gone up, the general echo of the methanol scandal, during which 47 Czechs died of alcohol poisoning and the subsequent short-term prohibition two years ago, left marks that can still be felt. Czechs are wearier of buying hard alcohol and liquor producers have been forced to adapt to the change in demand.

Czech textiles firms have benefited significantly from the Czech National Bank’s intervention to weaken the country’s currency the crown last November. According to a report in Thursday’s edition of the financial daily Hospodářské noviny, manufacturers in the sector saw 12-percent year-on-year growth in the first half of 2014.

Up to 38 million crowns in incentives will be used in order to promote a direct air connection between Prague and China, Tomáš Neřold, spokesman for the Ministry of Transport told the Czech News Agency (Č TK) on Wednesday. The announcement came after a meeting between the ministers of transport from both of the respective countries and representatives of Czech Aeroholding, a state owned air transport group which includes Czech Airlines.

It has been ten years since products bearing the Fairtrade Certificate started being sold on the Czech market. The anniversary comes side by side news that 2013 was the best year for Fairtrade sales in the country so far. With Czechs having bought products worth 173 million crowns, retail sales went up 80 percent more than in 2012. Fairtrade continues to widen its reach and assortment across Czech retail stores and raise awareness of the mark through various campaigns. It also seems to be profiting from an emerging trend of more critical

Czech food exporters are bracing for the impact of Russia’s sweeping ban on food imports introduced in response to EU sanctions over Ukraine. In terms of agricultural commodities, Russia is the Czech Republic’s most significant export destination outside of the EU. Czech exports of food and agricultural commodities to Russia last year totalled 2.4 billion crowns and in particular dairy producers are now scrambling to find new outlets for their goods.

President Miloš Zeman suggested during a press conference following a meeting with representatives of Czech and Moravian Trade Unions Confederation (ČMKOS) on Thursday that the Czech National Bank may be devaluing the crown in order to avoid entering the Eurozone. Zeman has been critical of the national bank’s decision ever since it announced it was going ahead with the weak crown policy last autumn. But his comments have been dismissed by some economists.

State export insurer EGAP has been given a main role in helping diversify Czech exports. That task has just got a lot more challenging with trade sanctions between the EU and Russia and the even more urgent need to shift business and contracts to new destinations.

TATRA TRUCKS rise from the ashes following its predecessor’s bankruptcy seems to be continuing at a steady pace. The company already announced at the beginning of August that it had sold more vehicles in the first half of the year than expected and raised its profits estimate for the full year to 3 billion crowns. TATRA TRUCKS also says it has almost sold all this year’s planned production plan of 745 vehicles and expects to be capable of overshooting its 2014 target by an extra 30 to 50 vehicles.

Speculation has been raised in the Russian media that Moscow’s next retaliatory sanctions against the European Union and West could cover car imports. If that were the case, then the Czech Republic’s biggest industrial companies and exporters could suffer an unwelcome, but not fatal, blow.

Construction firms won almost 40 percent more in public contracts in the first half of 2014 compared to the same period last year, according to a study quoted by the Czech News Agency. In total, some CZK 80.755 billion in pubic construction projects were awarded in the period in question.