Pivec said the inter-ministerial task force would go through the legislation on public procurement and find a way to bring more locally produced and organic food to public institutions.

The ministry also plans to boost oversight over the implementation of existing rules on green public procurement.

The idea was welcomed by the head of the diary Mlekarna Krepko and the head of the interest group Eko Krepko, Sandra Turnšek. "We can change the shape of Slovenian organic farming through public procurement," she told today's panel, hosted by Slovenia's Agricultural and Forestry Chamber (KGZS).

But she warned that not much had changed in recent years despite promises from state bodies.

On the one hand, ministries say they support organic farming and on the other, public institutions are not obligated to buy the whole amount food from the public call for applications, she warned.

Pivec said that an action plan for promoting organic farming could be included in the strategy for agricultural development, which is what the Association of Slovenian Organic Farmers demands.

The association's head Marija Marinček said the state should motivate farmers to specialise in organic farming by offering advice and information.

KGZS head Cvetko Zupančič said that organic farming alone would not be able to feed everyone, so commercial production was also needed.

But he believes Slovenian farmers could use the niche more, so that most of organic food would not come from abroad.

In 2017, around 5% of all farms in Slovenia were involved in organic farming, which translates into 3,635 farms in a total of some 70,000 farms in the country.

These farms produced food on an area of 46,276 hectares, which is 9.6% of all farmland currently cultivated in Slovenia.

Under the 2014-2020 rural development programme, the figures should rise to 5,000 farms and 50,000 hectares of land.

According to Marjeta Bizjak of the Agriculture Ministry, some of the main challenges of organic farming are the lack of quality seeds and the lack of cooperation, including with the market system. "Our scope of organic farming is too small, farmers mostly sell their products directly at their farms or at local markets."

In Austria, for example, 21.3% of all farms are organic farms and 24.2% of farmland is used for this type of farming, said Veronika Gschöpf-Prochazka of the Bio Austria association.