Selling food at fairs and festivals in Republika Srpska: stands, hygiene, fiscal receipts

Food sold at a fair, village market or festival in Republika Srpska falls under four sets of rules: trade, food hygiene, catering and fiscalisation. They apply to farmers, small producers, caterers and traders with a temporary stand. Sales at a permanent green market are covered in the article on selling at a green market in Republika Srpska, and informing the police about an event in the article on farm tastings and events. General fiscal receipt rules are in the article on fiscalisation in Republika Srpska, and preparation for fairs in the article on fairs for Herzegovina food producers and tourism providers.

In short

• The rulebook on registering facilities for food of animal origin (92/22) does not list a tent or table at an event as a facility that needs its own registration. Sales vehicles are registered: mobile butcher's shops, mobile fish shops and other mobile units selling food of animal origin (Art. 3).
• The organiser keeps a list of all sellers and marks out the area. The mayor (gradonačelnik or načelnik opštine) sets the time and place of the event.
• A small producer may sell eggs and the listed processed products at an event, but not raw milk, fresh meat from on-farm slaughter, fish or game.
• Every stand needs a supply of hot and cold drinking water, a place to wash hands and smooth, washable surfaces.
• A fiscal receipt is required. Selling your own agricultural produce is exempt, including from stalls and in the open air (Government decree, Official Gazette RS 10/24, 6/25, 68/25 and 87/25). Ask the Tax Administration whether the exemption covers your processed products.

Who it applies to

• Producers selling from a registered or approved facility (small food business operators).
• Caterers serving food and drinks outside their own premises.
• Traders selling packaged food at the event.

What to do

1. Ask the organiser to enter you in the list of sellers and give you a place. Only goods that are the subject and purpose of the event may be sold (Law on Trade, Art. 79).
2. If you use a public area that is not already approved for the organiser, get approval from the municipality or city. A table, stand or similar improvised structure on a public area needs prior approval from the mayor, or the consent of the owner or user of the space (Law on Trade, Art. 59). A caterer must also obtain approval for using the public area (Law on Catering, Art. 15 para. 4).
3. A caterer must be registered and keep the registration decision at the place of service. A price list, a first-aid kit and sun protection (if there are tables and chairs) are also required (Arts. 15 and 30). The rule that drinks are served only in glass does not apply at fairs, festivals and other public events (Art. 30 para. 6).
4. Equip the stand in line with the Rulebook on food hygiene (Art. 18): space and equipment for washing and drying hands, a supply of hot and cold drinking water, food-contact surfaces that are smooth, washable and corrosion-resistant, waste containers, protection of food from animals and pests, and a cold chain for perishable food.
5. A producer using the small-scale exemption may sell only the products listed for events (Rulebook, Annexes 1 and 3): eggs and processed milk, meat products, bee products, fruit and vegetable products, milling and bakery products, beer and other plant products. Processed milk, meat and bee products must come from an approved facility, and the other products from a registered facility. Quantities are capped; the limits are in Annexes 1 and 3 of the Rulebook. Keep records of quantities produced and delivered for two years (Art. 30). For honey from your own apiary, the later Rulebook 92/22 also applies: a facility for primary honey production is a registered facility (Art. 2), and the registration form lists honey fairs and other events as places to sell honey. Confirm which registration you need with the Ministarstvo poljoprivrede, šumarstva i vodoprivrede (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management); more in the article on beekeeping in Republika Srpska.
6. Staff at the stand need a sanitary health check and hygiene training, and products need proper labels (see the articles on health checks for food workers and on labelling home-made food).
7. Issue a fiscal receipt at the moment of sale. By law, a temporary space counts as business premises. At each point of sale the device must have a local fiscal receipt processor. A virtual processor works only with a permanent internet connection and may be used only where a local one cannot (Art. 9). If there is no internet, the data are sent to the Tax Administration as soon as the connection returns, and within five days at the latest (Law on Fiscalisation, Arts. 2, 4, 9 and 11).

Deadlines and amounts

• The government decree exempts from fiscalisation the sale of agricultural produce grown on your own family farm, in the farm's own premises and from stalls at a market, outside a market and in the open air (Art. 2 point 6). A 2025 amendment (68/25) deleted the words "directly to the final consumer" from that point. The other 2025 amendments (6/25, 68/25 and 87/25) concern other activities.
• If you also sell other goods, issue a fiscal receipt for them (Law on Fiscalisation, Art. 4 para. 5).
• Unrecorded sales: a 30-day ban on the activity, or 60 days for a repeat offence within one year (Art. 17). The fine is 4,000 to 12,000 KM for a sole trader and 8,000 to 24,000 KM for a company (Art. 20).

Where to go

• Municipal or city administration (approval for public space) and the event organiser.
• Republička uprava za inspekcijske poslove (Republic Administration for Inspection), Trebinje branch, Republike Srpske 33, tel. 059/273-080; Bileća office, Vladimira Gaćinovića 2, tel. 059/371-880.
• Poreska uprava Republike Srpske (Tax Administration) for fiscalisation.

Laws and sources

• Pravilnik o uslovima odstupanja koja se odnose na subjekte u poslovanju sa hranom koji imaju mali obim proizvodnje (Rulebook on derogations for small-scale food business operators, Official Gazette RS 27/19)
• Pravilnik o higijeni hrane (Rulebook on food hygiene, Official Gazette RS 39/18)
• Pravilnik o registraciji, odnosno odobravanju objekata za proizvodnju i promet hrane životinjskog porijekla i vođenju registara (Rulebook on registration and approval of animal-origin food facilities, Official Gazette RS 92/22)
• Zakon o trgovini (Law on Trade, Official Gazette RS 105/19)
• Zakon o ugostiteljstvu (Law on Catering, Official Gazette RS 45/17 and 1/24)
• Zakon o fiskalizaciji (Law on Fiscalisation, Official Gazette RS 15/22)
• Uredba o djelatnostima za čije obavljanje ne postoji obaveza evidentiranja prometa preko elektronskog fiskalnog uređaja (Decree on activities exempt from recording sales on an electronic fiscal device, Official Gazette RS 10/24, 6/25, 68/25 and 87/25)