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Škoda Transportation is one of Europe’s leading rail carriage and tram producers. But while it has successfully built up worldwide sales, Western European markets have not produced the contracts that had been hoped for. The acquisition of a controlling stake in Finland’s biggest rail carriage and tram producer could help crack that problem.

The biggest drought in over a decade is expected to take a heavy toll on the harvest and particularly small and medium sized farmers with inadequate irrigation facilities are expected to be hard hit. According to preliminary estimates Czech fruit and vegetable growers will see a 30 percent loss in profits.

While Czech companies have seen healthy growth in their profits in the last year and a half, their employees have seen little change in their pay packets, Hospodářské noviny reported on Monday. Firms are instead opting to reinvest their gains or use them to cover losses sustained during the crisis, the business daily said.

The end game for the sale of Slovenské Elektrárne has been set out with Czech company EPH in the frame to become one of Europe’s major power players. But the scenario set out by current majority owner ENEL is far from clear.

Main Czech gas pipeline company NET4GAS has been given a solid reference from credit rating companies but final decisions on what the government sees as key strategic infrastructure projects are still under consideration.

New legislation will make it impossible for companies to use suggestive logos or slogans designating “Czech quality” in foodstuffs which by and large are produced elsewhere, news website iDnes reports. Instead, one logo – a picture of the Czech flag underlined by the words ‘Česká potravina’ – will be available for use by companies that meet the necessary requirements: namely, that the foodstuffs in question are produced fully or largely in the Czech Republic and mostly from Czech ingredients.

Over two-thirds of small and medium-sized businesses in the Czech Republic are against a Czech National Bank policy that aims to keep the crown at a maximum of 27 to the euro, the newspaper Mladá fronta Dnes reported on Monday.

The Czech Republic has an export-dependent economy with the bulk of exports going to EU member states. The recent economic crisis and sanctions against Russia led the Czech government to draft a diversification strategy in 2012 and place a strong emphasis on economic diplomacy. However figures just out show that, so far, it has produced scant results.

The recent strengthening of the crown has led the Czech National Bank to consider extending its low crown intervention policy until 2017, according to the head of the bank’s currency and statistical section Tomáš Holub. In an interview with the business daily Hospodářské Noviny on Thursday Mr. Holub said it was the bank’s aim to continue with interventions on foreign markets for as long as necessary in order to support growth and move inflation towards the 2.0 percent target.

Under a freshly launched project, Czech mushroom pickers are now able to turn the hugely popular hobby into cash. The South Bohemian company České houby is now buying up their finds and delivering them to supermarkets around the country, Hospodářské noviny reported.