The History of a Single Deal
In the summer of 2018, Kvarlis Bagi, the largest raw milk farm in Georgia, entered into an agreement with leading chicken producer Chirina. The terms of the deal stated that the farm would purchase almost 2,700 tons of chicken manure from Chrina per year. The supplier warned, though, that they only sold raw materials for use as fertilizers. But Kvarlis Bagi apparently decided to use it as a type of cow feed.
A year later, the farm complained to its partner that the milk produced on its farm had been contaminated with antibiotics. Several customers, such as Sante, began returning products to the supplier.
The owner of Kvarlis Bagi, Lasha Papashvili, also stated that a feed additive produced using Chirina products had been the source of 1.65 million lari (nearly 600,000 dollars) in damage and death to livestock. Later, it turned out that one cow on the farm had eaten six to seven kilograms of chicken feed mixed with manure in a day.
Lawsuits from Rustavi to Tbilisi
In 2020, Lasha Papashvili filed a lawsuit against Chirina founder Revaz Vashakidze in Rustavi Court, with the trial lasting nearly a year. The court satisfied a portion of Kvarlis Bagi’s requests, ruling that instead of the 4.7 million lari (over 2 million dollars), the defendant should pay only for the price of the spoiled milk–65,000 lari (20-25,000 dollars). It also found Vashakidze’s company guilty of the livestock’s death.
After both sides appealed the decision, the case was brought to Rustavi Court for a new examination. In March 2024, though, Kvarlis Bagi withdrew the claim. Two months later, the case was appealed in Tbilisi Court with the same demands.
The case was reviewed for seven months. Following the trial, the court decided in favor of Kvarlis Bagi that raw materials should not contain any residue of prohibited veterinary drugs. According to a case file, lab reports found traces of the antibiotic tetracycline in the manure, which was responsible for the spoiled milk and death of 200 cattle. The Chirina company was forced to pay 4.7 million lari.
Chirina representatives, however, found the verdict unfair, stating that Papashvili used personal connections. Radio Liberty experts also questioned the verdict. The collected evidence suggested that the court’s decision was baseless. Experts believe that the court was biased toward Kvarlis Bagi.
The court’s decision was based on the chicken feed containing “traces of prohibited veterinary drugs”; however, among the case’s materials was an official National Food Agency letter that didn’t include tetracycline on the list of prohibited medications. Farmers often still use the antibiotic. In fact, according to a court document, a veterinarian at Kvarlis Bagi also used tetracycline to treat cows.
Like any antibiotic, tetracycline isn’t allowed to be used in milk, however, legal documents prohibiting the presence of antibiotics in chicken manure don’t exist in Georgia.
The defendant also publicized a National Food Agency letter that stated that from 2018-19, the department conducted five lab tests on the farm’s chickens and never found tetracycline.
In turn, experts said that Kvarlis Bagi used unaccredited Batumi State University lab reports in court. The samples were collected violating several rules–both sides’ representatives weren’t present during collection, and the procedure didn’t meet process requirements–leading to questions of the data’s validity.
Is it possible to feed livestock chicken manure?
In European Union countries, the use of chicken manure as feed for livestock was banned 20 years ago. In Georgia, similar measures were passed in 2023. Experts note that manure is typically polluted with various fungi and dangerous bacteria like salmonella. Manure mixed with litter (such as sawdust or wool) also promotes bacterial growth, adding additional risk of polluting dairy products and harming animals.
According to the law, responsibility for feeding safe feed to cattle falls on the business, in this case, Kvarlis Bagi. The farm needed to have regular lab tests on the milk, and the discovery of the detected antibiotics wasn’t by the farm itself but by customers like Sante and Soplis Nobati. A company’s investigation found that tetracycline was detected in Kvarlis Bagi products approximately ten times per year, but not in all batches.
Lasha Papashvili, the founder of the dairy company, wrote to Radio Liberty that although EU countries ban the use of chicken manure, he considers it a cheap source of protein and claims that since 2012, the ban has been lifted in several counties (the changes only affecting pigs).
After the findings came out, Kvarlis Bagi stated that it hadn’t used chicken droppings as feed since 2019. The company published a statement that said the spoiled milk had been destroyed and wasn’t being used in any farms or supplied to other buyers.
The company also stated that from 2015-20, it was run by an Israeli professor of veterinary medicine who, based on Israeli practices, used chicken droppings in feed from 2018-19.
Not only business?
The legal dispute between Kvarlis Bagi and Chirina seems to not only concern questions of production quality but also political interests. Revaz Vashakidze believes the decision to bring the lawsuit to Tbilisi City Court was because Lasha Papashvili could use his connections in the capital.
The Kvarlis Bagi founder is also one of the founders and heads of the Redix Group. The group manages real estate worth an estimated 100 million dollars. Papashvili is the auctioneer or director of over 40 companies. 12 years ago, the businessman invested 12 million dollars in a struggling farm, and today, there are more than 3,000 cows in its production.
Interestingly, the businessman’s brother, Sulkhan Papashvili, headed the Special State Protection Service during the Shevardnadze administration. Today, he is also a top businessman.
Both brothers openly support the Georgian Dream government and the Georgian Orthodox Church. In December of last year, Lasha Papshvili stated during a BMG interview that thanks to the Ivanishvili party, there was peace and a developing economy in Georgia:
“Georgian Dream is leading the country to Europe, doesn’t anybody think so? […] We need to forgive the mistakes, no matter who our leader is, we need to forgive them[…] Bidzina Ivanishvili already would’ve gone down in history if he ended his career today, […] he saved our country from war.”
The founder of the Chirina company, Revaz Vashakidze, is a 70-year-old biologist who started his business in Russia but returned to Georgia in 2007. He has recently criticized the Georgian Dream government, and in 2024, during the parliamentary elections, he stated on BMG:
“For the past two years, the government and parliament have made decisions that distance Georgia from Europe and America. These are likely unacceptable for all Georgians.”
And last December, during the height of pro-European protests, the businessman demanded that Minister of Internal Affairs Vakhtang Gomelauri and other officials resign due to the disproportionate use of force against protestors on Rustaveli Avenue.
In Vashakidze’s view, Lasha Papashvili was able to win the dispute thanks to Judge Liana Kazhashvili, who made the final decision in favor of the plaintiff. According to non-governmental organizations, Kazhashvili’s family is connected to the so-called “legal clan” of Georgia, a group of influential judges who control the justice system and impose politically motivated sentences.
“We lost because the case was already agreed upon with the judges. Earlier, as you know, the criminal came with thieves, but then started to negotiate with the judges […] This is money extortion through judges,” stated Revaz Vashakidze in a Radio Liberty interview.
