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The Czech Federation of Food Banks has recorded a sharp increase in the amount of food donated to charities. According to Czech Radio, the amount of food collected in the first quarter of 2018 was five times higher than in the same period last year.

Czech hotels and other accommodation facilities saw a record number of tourists in May, the daily Hospodářské noviny reported on Tuesday.

This summer, aphids – those small, sap-sucking insects which infest potatoes and other key agricultural crops – have been appeared on Czech farms in alarming numbers. While drought is a factor, efforts to save the honeybee are also behind the infestations.

The Czech Republic boasts a relatively high number of swimming pools per capita. However, most are loss-making and many municipalities are looking to replace aging pools with more attractive water parks, the business daily E15 reported.

The number of workers from Southern European states seeking work in the Czech Republic is on the rise. Italians are the most numerous, while the figure for Spanish and Portuguese nationals employed by Czech firms has tripled in just a decade, Hospodářské noviny reported.

A co-author of the Czech Insolvency Act of 2006 has warned that a proposed amendment to the law would “unintentionally” give debt relief to hundreds of thousands of people. Tomáš Richter, a renowned expert on both Czech and European insolvency law, said in an interview that lax rules set out in the current amendment could potentially mean adding another 600,000-700,000 to the list of people qualifying for debt relief.

The newly-appointed agriculture minister, Miroslav Toman, has said he will move to regulate the number of promotional campaigns in supermarket chains. The announcement comes in the wake of a controversial promo campaign at the German retailer Kaufland which recently offered shoppers a liter of milk for the price of just 1 crown.

The bankrupt Poldi Steelworks was auctioned off for a second time on Wednesday, to an anonymous bidder for 251 million crowns (nearly 10 million euros). The minimum bid was set at 160 million crowns with the estimated value of Poldi’s assets given as 180 million crowns.

UDI Group plans to list shares this autumn on the Prague Stock Exchange’s new Start market which aims to encourage investment in small and mid-sized companies. In October, the Czech developer hopes to raise CZK 300 million through an initial public offering (IPO).

The annual general meeting of state-controlled power producer ČEZ proved to be a contentious one, lasting a record 14 hours and into the wee hours of Saturday. In the end, it saw the ouster of three ČEZ supervisory board members, including its chairman, in a political power play. The AGM also agreed on a dividend pay-out which fell short of demands by some influential minority shareholders.