The bill, approved by the Chamber of Deputies July 1, mainly targets supermarket chains, which farmers claim destroy Czech agriculture by forcing them to sell at less than production costs.

If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the regulation, sponsored by Ladislav Skopal, head of Parliament's Agricultural Committee, would outlaw price-dumping — in which a retailer sells goods for prices lower than production costs.

Two further regulations would likely follow, both currently being drafted by the Agriculture Ministry, specifying minimum production costs and the goods affected by the ban, mostly food products. The regulations would also set penalties for breaking the law.

"If you don't sell for a week, you would take any price just to sell," Krátky´ said. Last fall another surplus caused by cheap imports forced many domestic growers to plow crops under.

Supermarkets can afford to sell some items for dumping prices to lure customers who also buy other products, compensating for the money lost on the underpriced sales. Skopal said that under the proposed law, the Agricultural Research Institute would set the minimum production prices and would take into consideration Czech labor costs. He added, "Measures will be taken to prevent dumping prices from goods imported from abroad."

Supermarkets, meanwhile, denounced the bill as an attempt to regulate the free market. "It would be a clumsy interference with retailers' price policy that would affect customers," said Tesco spokesman Vesselin Barliev. He added that supermarkets will protest the bill when it comes before the Senate.

Some farmers are skeptical about the bill, suggesting that it might not do enough to turn the situation around. "This definitely is a good idea, but its implementation is doubtful," said Krátky´.

Jaroslav Camplík, president of the Food Industry Chamber, suggested that Skopal may have jumped the gun with the proposal, asserting that the bill remains far too vague to actually address the problem.

"It is a small step forward, but it is far away from what we have been expecting," Camplík said. The Food Industry Chamber has been working with the Finance Ministry to draft its own bill on prices to address the situation in far more detail. Its version calls for penalties to offenders, he said. It would also ban supermarkets from selling goods for prices lower than those the stores have paid to suppliers, with the exception of specially announced sales. The chamber plans to lobby for the bill and submit it to the government by July 31, he said.