The critical and major change that has taken place in Austria within the last 10 years was the ban of conventional cages in 2009, while most EU states banned conventional cages in 2012, according to Michael Wurzer from The Austrian Poultry Federation (ZAG).

From Austria's point of view, this change can be regarded as successful: just before the change we had a self-sufficiency rate of about 70 per cent and now it has reached over 80 per cent. Approximately €100 million had to be invested to comply with the new requirements set by law.

Most of Austria's battery cage systems were changed to aviaries (65 per cent); free-range and organic production changed just slightly.

No more than 15 farms have enriched cages; these were only allowed to be built until the end of 2004.