Large supermarkets in Czechia will be forced to sell mostly home-produced food from next year under a new law approved on Wednesday.

Lawmakers agreed the measure despite a backlash from partners in the European Union. 

Under the new law, Czech food will have to make up a minimum of 55 percent of sales in shops with a surface area of more than 400 square meters. The share is to gradually grow at least 73 percent by 2028. The amendment was proposed by the right-wing Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) movement of Tokyo-born deputy parliamentary speaker Tomio Okamura. 

The quota only applies to food products that can be produced in Czechia, which is an EU member country of 10.7 million people. The objective is to be self-sufficient in foodstuff production and to support local farmers. 

However, the measure has divided opinion because EU single-market rules allow for the free circulation of goods and services across the 27-member bloc. Despite this, it is anticipated that Czech president Milos Zeman will sign the measure.

Agriculture Minister Miroslav Toman told lawmakers: "Let's be nationalists for a bit, when it comes to food, Czech agriculture and our country." 

On Wednesday, Czech business broadsheet Hospodarske Noviny said eight EU countries including Germany and France had slammed the quota legislation in a letter to Jaroslav Faltynek, the head of the parliament's committee for agriculture. 

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has experienced financial success with the Agrofert food, chemicals and media holding, which he has parked in trust funds to avoid a conflict of interest. However, the EU and local transparency watchdogs have repeatedly accused him of continuing to control the group and thus breaking EU rules in his dual role as a politician making decisions on EU agricultural subsidies and an entrepreneur making money from it.

Critics of the new measure within Czechia have said it would help both Babis and Agrofert, while harming consumers due to competition being stifled and a risk of export retaliation. 

"If other EU countries started to do the same, it would dramatically harm Czech exports," Radek Spicar, the deputy head of the Confederation of Industry, told AFP.