Price development evaluation of chosen plant commodities in agrarian market in the Slovak Republic[Zhodnotenie vývoja cien vybraných rastlinných komodít agrárneho trhu Slovenskej republiky]

The objective of the paper is to evaluate the price development of the chosen commodities in plant production in Slovakia and to focus on the factors influencing the increase or decrease in the price of commodities on the domestic and foreign markets. In 2008 the prices of the products in a year-on-year plant production increased by 1.6 %. The price of the plant products, including fruits and vegetables recorded the biggest increase since January 2008 until October 2008. The biggest increase in prices was recorded in June (increase of 52.7%). The high prices of oil plants and legume were one of the causes in a year-on-year price increase (oil plants increase by 23.3% and legume -15.7%). Price development on the domestic market of cereals and oil plants was influenced in the first three terms by growing stock-exchange value and the high demand from the side of foreign buyers connected with the increasing production of biofuels. On the other hand, in the last term of the year 2008, there can be seen the rapid decrease of the prices of cereals and oil plants because of the high production and the development of the world prices. The prices of fruits, evaluated in 2004-2008, recorded the biggest increase in January and February 2008 (in January 2008 - increase by 22.1% and February 2008 - increase by 23.2%). Prices of vegetables slightly grew in the monitored period. The biggest increase was recorded in December 2006 and in January and February 2007 (more than 15%).