Animal welfare campaigners are celebrating this week, after supermarket giant Tesco agreed to source 100% cage-free eggs throughout its central European stores covering Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland by 2025.

Tesco made the commitment on Friday, following engagement with welfare charities The Humane League and Open Cages. The decision follows the supermarket’s announcement in 2016 that it will phase out sales of caged-eggs in the UK by 2025.

Although the European Union banned barren battery cages in 2012, campaigners are still unsatisfied with the conditions of the so-called “enriched cages” that replaced them; these enriched systems still house up to 13 birds/m2 (giving each bird about the space of an A4 piece of paper). Last week’s announcement by Tesco is especially important for campaigners, as proportionally more eggs in central European countries are still sourced from caged systems. In the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland more than 80% of the laying hens are kept in “enriched cages” compared to around 50% in the UK (according to the industry, around 43% of eggs on sale in Tesco in Britain come from cage systems.)

On Wednesday, Humane League spokesperson Vicky Bond said, “As one of the largest retailers in the world, Tesco’s policy to exclusively source cage-free shell eggs to cover stores in Central Europe will reduce the suffering of millions of farm animals every year. We are proud to have worked with Tesco on its commitment to extend its UK policy to other European locations.“