PRAGUE -- Czech confectioner Cokoladovny Praha a.s. on Tuesday blamed continuing weak sales on a fall in exports to former Soviet Union countries, sharper local competition and the split of Czechoslovakia last year.


The former state-owned chocolate producer reported sales of 5.59 billion crowns ($200 million) from January to September, down about 5 percent from the same period last year.


A company statement announced pre-tax profits of 750 million crowns for the first nine months of 1994. The firm made a 1.29 billion crown pre-tax profit in the whole of 1993. Seasonal profit comparisons were not available.


But Cokoladovny noted the sales figures represented an improvement from the first six months of the year, when sales dropped 12 percent compared to the first half of 1993.


The slim recovery was due to "efforts to reconquer the shelves in Slovakia and the positive development of the Czech market," the statement said. The company recently opened a plant in Slovakia.


Officials blamed reduced exports to former Soviet states, increased competition on the domestic market and balance of payments problems arising from the division of Czechoslovakia at the start of 1993 for declining sales.