The state enterprise Lesy České republiky (LČR) received bids from 36 companies in its tender for forestry work, timber harvesting and timber sales for the years 2027 to 2031. The deadline for submitting bids expired on Monday, 19 October 2026, at 10:00. The enterprise is now checking and evaluating the bids, spokeswoman Eva Jouklová said. Director General Josef Vojáček wants to sign the contracts by mid-December 2026 at the latest.[1]
The tender consists of 37 contracts with an estimated total value of 4.18 billion crowns. It covers the harvesting of 5.4 million cubic metres of timber across 229,000 hectares of forest, and the winning companies are also to carry out reforestation on 6,600 hectares. A total of 348 bids were submitted for the 37 territorial units, an average of 9.41 bids per contract. Last year's 2026+ tender covered 40 contracted units, drew 40 participating companies and averaged 9.85 bids per contract.[1]
On 32 of the units the contract is a comprehensive one, covering both silvicultural work and harvesting together with the company's own timber trading. The enterprise received 291 bids from 32 companies for these; on 26 of them the companies will work for five years, three contracts are for two years and three for one year. On five units only silvicultural work and harvesting are contracted out, while LČR itself sells the timber; these drew 57 bids from 19 companies, and all of these contracts are for five years. The tenders are issued under a rotating system, under which work on roughly one fifth of the territory is put out to tender each year.[1]
After skipping last year's round, the company Uniles, part of the Agrofert group, returned and submitted 26 bids, 21 of them for comprehensive contracts. Last year it did not take part, citing speculation and attacks on Agrofert companies. In the 2025+ tender it won six of twelve units, in the 2024+ tender two contracts out of 59, and in the 2023+ tender sixteen out of 84. In the 2026+ tender the most successful company was LDF Rožnov, with contracts on eight units, while the contracts overall were shared among 13 companies.[1]
Cattle-breeding facility in Javorná
In October 2026 the state enterprise Vojenské lesy a statky České republiky opened a facility for organic cattle breeding in Javorná in the Doupov Mountains. According to the enterprise's director, Petr Král, the roughly 40-million-crown construction, financed from the company's own resources, improves conditions for raising beef cattle and develops primary agricultural production in the region.[2]
The automated cattle barn is designed for 150 to 200 young heifers, adjoins pastureland, and the animals have free access outdoors. Bedding and feed-pushing are handled by robotic equipment, and operations can be monitored and controlled remotely. The facility also includes infrastructure for a mobile container slaughterhouse. According to Král, in a crisis situation the enterprise would supply cattle to the Czech Armed Forces, which would process them. Company spokesman Petr Toman said the robotic technologies are being partly tested here, and if the results are good, similar facilities could be built elsewhere.[2]
According to Král, the enterprise's annual turnover is 3.4 billion crowns, of which roughly 250 million goes into investment.[2]
Cattle breeding by Vojenské lesy a statky České republiky
According to Deník, Vojenské lesy a statky České republiky keeps around 3,500 head of cattle, roughly half of them in the Doupov Mountains; it also runs other herds, for example in the South Bohemian Region and in the Olomouc area. At the cattle barn in Javorná, in addition to the equipment for bedding and pushing feed, automatic scratching brushes have also been installed, and the enterprise is testing further technologies.[2]
Completion of munitions clearance in Boří Forest
After eleven years, Lesy České republiky has completed the clearance of unexploded ordnance from Boří Forest near Břeclav. Since 2015, bomb disposal technicians have removed more than 70,000 pieces of ordnance from 480 hectares, scattered by the explosion of the Muna munitions factory at the end of the Second World War; the work within the Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape cost 50 million crowns. Representatives of Lesy ČR and other parties involved announced this at a press conference on 12 October 2026.[3][4]
The factory was destroyed by the Soviet army during the liberation, and the explosion scattered munitions across 750 hectares. In the 1990s the state had 250 hectares cleared; the remaining area has been searched since 2015 by bomb disposal technicians from a hired civilian firm, working together with forestry staff and the Police of the Czech Republic's bomb disposal service. They found grenades, mines, aerial bombs and other munitions; among the most significant finds was a 210-millimetre anti-concrete artillery shell weighing 125 kilograms.[3][4]
According to Radek Žemlička, head of the Brno branch of the bomb disposal service, the variety of finds was exceptional, because during the war the German army had also stored captured materiel at the plant, so munitions from almost all the wartime belligerents lay in the forest. British ordnance, he said, was among the most dangerous, and even after 80 years it required destruction on site in 90 percent of cases.[3][4]
Lesy ČR had originally planned to finish the work earlier, but agreed to a request from the Prison Service of the Czech Republic and had the forests around the Poštorná prison searched as well, said Miroslav Svoboda, director of the Židlochovice Forest Enterprise. Boří Forest is part of the Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape; it was established on sandy soil by the Liechtenstein family and remained open to the public, except for areas where bomb disposal technicians were actively working.[3][4]
Related entries: Agrofert, Břeclav, Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape, Vojenské lesy a statky České republiky
Chronology
- — 36 firms submitted bids in the tender of the state enterprise Lesy České republiky for forestry work and timber harvesting in 2027–2031, with an estimated value of CZK 4.18 billion; they include Uniles, part of the Agrofert group, after a year's pause. Hospodářské noviny
- — Vojenské lesy opened a facility for organic cattle farming in Javorná in the Doupov area. Karlovarská Drbna Deník: Karlovarský kraj
- — Lesy České republiky announced the completion of the clearance of ammunition from Boří les near Břeclav, scattered by the explosion of the Muna factory at the end of the Second World War; since 2015 bomb-disposal specialists have removed more than 70,000 pieces of ammunition from 480 hectares, and the work cost 50 million crowns. ČTK / České noviny iDNES.cz
Sources
- Hospodářské noviny — 19 October 2026
- Deník: Karlovarský kraj
- ČTK / České noviny — 12 October 2026
- iDNES.cz — 12 October 2026