Radio Liberty: Georgia’s largest dairy farm fed cows chicken manure banned in EU

Georgian farm fed cows chicken manure

According to an investigative report by Radio Liberty, the owner of Georgia’s largest dairy farm, Kvarlis Baga, fed cows chicken manure banned in the European Union. Companies including Sante, Soflis Nobati, Agrohub, and Rdzis Laboratoria — a subsidiary of Kvarlis Baga — source milk from the farm.

In 2024, Kvarlis Bagi, owned by businessman Lasha Papashvili, who is closely linked to the ruling Georgian Dream party, won a court case against poultry producer Chirina, which was ordered to pay 4.7 million Georgian lari.

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What happened?

In 2020, Lasha Papashvili’s company Kvarlis Bagi filed a lawsuit against Chirina. According to court documents, each cow on the farm consumed around 6–7 kilograms of chicken manure mixed with dung per day.

An investigative report revealed that Kvarlis Bagi purchased around 2,700 tonnes of raw, unprocessed chicken manure from Chirina. A year later, Kvarlis Bagi claimed the manure fed to the cows had caused livestock deaths and damages totalling 1.65 million lari. Chirina denied the complaint, stating it sells chicken manure as fertiliser, not as animal feed.

Notably, the Rustavi court was unable to establish Chirina’s responsibility for the cattle deaths. The Court of Appeal returned the case to Rustavi for retrial. In March 2024, Kvarlis Bagi withdrew the case from the Rustavi court and refiled it in Tbilisi City Court two months later with the same claims.

In December 2024, the Tbilisi City Court ruled in favour of Kvarlis Bagi. The company presented a laboratory report showing that the manure sample contained the antibiotic tetracycline.

Based on this report, the judge concluded that the manure, contaminated with antibiotics, not only lowered milk quality but also caused the death of around 200 cows. The court ordered Chirina to compensate Kvarlis Bagi for the lost livestock and to cover interest payments on a loan taken out to buy replacement cattle.

According to Radio Liberty’s investigation, court documents also included a letter from Georgia’s National Food Agency stating that tetracycline found in the manure is not on the list of banned veterinary drugs and is still used by farmers. The documents also show that Kvarlis Bagi’s own veterinarian had treated cows with tetracycline.

How did involved companies respond to investigation?

Radio Liberty reached out to the companies purchasing milk from Kvarlis Bagi, asking whether they tested each batch for antibiotics and whether they were aware that their supplier had been feeding cows chicken manure — a substance banned in the EU at the time.

The owner of Chirina denied using tetracycline on the poultry farm, claiming a different drug was used. Meanwhile, Sante declined to comment.

PepsiCo, which owns the Soplis Nobati brand, responded:
“The archive for that period is unavailable, as the legal document retention period is three years. In general, if the quality of milk or any ingredient does not meet legal requirements or PepsiCo standards, that ingredient is deemed substandard and excluded from production.”

When asked whether they knew their milk supplier was using chicken manure — a product banned in the EU at the time — PepsiCo representatives answered no.

Agrohub also said they were unaware that Kvarlis Bagi was feeding cows manure. The company stated that they test every batch of milk for antibiotics and reject any product that contains them. However, they also noted that they no longer have archival records from that period.