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Czech agriculture is facing the worst shortage of labour in its history. The number of agricultural workers and students of secondary schools focused on agriculture agricultural has fallen to a record low, the daily Hospodářské noviny reported on Wednesday. Over the past 10 years, the number students in these secondary school dropped from 175,000 to 96, 000.

Czech wine growers say severe frost which occurred at the end of April is likely to cost them around half a billion crowns. A national association of winegrowers anounced on Tuesday that the price of grapes is likely to rise this year as a result of the shortage of wine grapes.

Czech breweries last year produced over 20 million hectolitres of beer, which is the biggest amount in the country’s history, according to the latest figures released by the Czech Beer and Malt Association this week. The production was fuelled mainly by increasing domestic consumption as well as increasing exports. The number of breweries has also gone up last year. Compared to 2015, production of beer and non-alcoholic beer increased last year by nearly two percent. Production of non-alcoholic beer was up by 17 percent to reach a total of 555,000

The last uranium mine in Central Europe, the Rožná 1 mine at Žďár nad Sázavou in the Vysočina region, has officially ceased operations. Much of the uranium extracted in its 60-year history ended up in the Soviet Union.

Construction works on a long-delayed Metro line are set to begin soon. A planned new north-south link of the Prague metro, the so-called D route, will be launched at Pankrác station, outside the Arkády shopping mall, the head of the Prague Transport Company Martin Gillár announced on Wednesday. This is where the tunnel boring machines will be brought under the ground.

Agriculture Minister Marian Jurečka has confirmed that the state-owned brewery Budějovický Budvar will be headed by Petr Dvořák, until now global brand director at rival Pilsner Urquell. Dvořák will take up the post on May 1. He replaces the former head, Jiří Boček, who ran the brewery since the early 1990s but stepped down earlier this year for health reasons.

The Supreme Audit Office has uncovered inaccuracies amounting to over CZK 100 billion in the accounts of the Ministry of Finance for 2015. Officials say that shortcomings in the ministry’s accounts could impact the state’s final account and financial statements – and that the ministry even mixed up billions and millions.

ANO leader Andrej Babiš, who is widely expected to be the country‘s next prime minister, has said he is opposed to the Czech Republic adopting the euro and is against any further integration with the EU. Speaking in a debate at Charles University, Finance Minister Babiš said he would happily support a multi-speed Europe within which EU members would be free to decide how fast and to what measure they wanted to proceed with EU integration.

The biggest digital laboratory in the Czech Republic has just opened its doors at the Jihomoravské inovační centrum (South Moravian Innovation Centre, JIC) in Brno. Entrepreneurs and members of the public can sign up to use 3D printers and other cutting-edge technologies at Fab Lab Brno.

Nearly 15 percent of Czechs switched to a different bank last year to avoid paying high fees, the daily Hospodářské noviny reported this week. According to a new survey carried out by STEM/MARK agency for one of the country’s smaller banks, Air Bank, every seventh client swapped their bank last year. The survey suggests that 85 percent of people choose their bank according to the fees it is charging.