How have our public contracting authorities kept alive the cruel battery cage system that consumers and retailers abandoned long ago? Read the article below, in which Veronika Cukrov analyses the phenomenon. (The original article is in Slovenian; the PDF is available in Slovenian.)
The law does not force you to buy eggs from cages; that is your own choice.
Veronika Cukrov, mag. prav., Law Firm Cukrov o.p., d.o.o. · Ljubljana, 28 October 2026
You will no longer find eggs from cages in any major Slovenian retailer; Hofer, Spar, Mercator and the others withdrew them on their own, without any state compulsion. Jata Emona, the largest producer, closed its last cage at the end of 2024, and according to European Commission data the number of caged places has fallen by 72 percent since 2017 and now makes up only 15 percent of the total. Who, then, do the remaining 32 farmers with almost 194,000 caged places still sell to? To public contracting authorities.
Student dormitories, care homes for the elderly, hospitals, primary schools and kindergartens are happy to order battery eggs: according to Erar, between 2025 and 2026 entities linked to battery farmers were paid by 336 public payers, including 188 primary schools, 54 kindergartens, 41 care homes for the elderly, 14 hospitals and 26 secondary schools and student dormitories, as well as some state-owned hotel companies that are not necessarily bound by the Public Procurement Act (ZJN-3), although their owner could bind them. One of these farms, which according to the UVHVVR register has exclusively battery housing with 5,760 places, has, through a packing centre at the same address, been the selected supplier of the egg lot for five Ljubljana student dormitories since 2013 according to the OpenProcurements portal, most recently for 2021 to 2024 with an option to extend, and in earlier years also for Ljubljana care homes for the elderly. In conclusion: what retailers removed from the shelves because customers and retailers recognised it as too cruel, public contracting authorities have kept on the menu, and, to be honest, with that they have most likely kept entire farms alive.
Footage from this farm showing the cruelty of battery farming has once again made the rounds in the media.
The myth of legal compulsion
A myth we often hear is that contracting authorities are forced into such purchasing by the Public Procurement Act (ZJN-3), which is not true; ZJN-3 does not require a contracting authority to buy the cheapest battery eggs; ZJN-3 requires it to select the most advantageous tender within the criteria that the authority itself sets. Article 68(1) of ZJN-3 allows the contracting authority to link technical specifications to a specific production process or method, provided it is related to the subject matter of the contract and proportionate; Article 84(6) of ZJN-3, which transposes Article 67(3) of Directive 2014/24/EU, provides that a criterion is linked to the subject matter also where it relates to a production process that is not materially part of the goods. An egg from a cage and an egg from a barn are chemically identical, the method of rearing cannot be found in the egg, and it is precisely for such cases that the legislator wrote that this is nevertheless a permissible requirement.
Production method code 0, 1 or 2
The contracting authority therefore simply writes in the lot that it is ordering eggs with production method code 0, 1 or 2 under Commission Regulation (EC) No 589/2008; under the same regulation the code is stamped on every egg, the proof costs nothing, and the check is carried out by the cook when opening the box. If the lot says only “eggs”, the authority has itself chosen to buy eggs from cages. The Court of Justice of the EU has also already confirmed, in Case C-368/10 (Commission v Netherlands), that requirements for organic production and fair trade, that is, for characteristics that cannot be measured in the product, are permissible, provided the authority does not require a specific label but substantive conditions that the label satisfies; and in the criteria for green public procurement of food (SWD(2019) 366), the European Commission placed animal welfare among technical specifications and criteria.
Apples yes, animal welfare no
Even more telling is what the same authorities already require and pay more for, without hesitation or objection. The Green Public Procurement Decree obliges them to buy at least 15 percent organic food and at least 20 percent food from quality schemes, Article 84(9) of ZJN-3 instructs them to give preference to quality schemes and sustainably produced food, Article 73(5) of ZJN-3 allows them, under the short supply chain principle, to buy part of their food without a public procurement procedure directly from a local farmer, and the 2026 examples of environmental requirements and criteria of the Ministry of Public Administration even include a seasonal calendar for apples. Green public procurement thus requires a school to buy organic and seasonal apples, preferably from a nearby farm, but does not require it to stop buying eggs from cages, even though the same guidance expressly lists the suffering of animals in intensive rearing systems among the key impacts.
For apples, then, we accept that the contracting authority has the right to demand better for one reason or another; when it comes to preventing unnecessary cruelty, we suddenly do not care and remember the lowest price. That things can be done differently is shown by the authorities themselves; some split the lot into barn, free-range and organic eggs, and the Ptuj Retirement Home, for example, required barn eggs in its 2026 tender and thereby lawfully closed the door to the cheapest offer of eggs from cages.
Who needs to act
Contracting authorities must act first, because they already hold the tool and need no new regulation for it; it is enough to write into the lot description a requirement for production method code 0, 1 or 2. Next, without doubt, come the ministries responsible for education, health and social care, which can include the rearing-method requirement in food procurement guidelines or in the green public procurement decree, just as regulations have for years set the shares of organic food, and municipalities as founders of schools and kindergartens. And finally every parent or relative, who can request the contract and delivery notes for the egg lot from a school or home under the Access to Public Information Act, and can check the rearing method from the first digit of the stamp on every egg.
The article is also published on LinkedIn (in Slovenian).
