On May 8, 2021, residents of Kvenakeli and Asanuri — two villages in the Ts’nori community of the Sighnaghi municipality — held a protest. Locals said that several days earlier, the Ministry of Economy had put up for auction the plots of land they had used as pastures for decades. In total, about 90 hectares were involved.

They demanded the auction’s cancellation and the right to continue using the land as pasture. Otherwise, they said, they would be forced to sell their cattle, losing their main source of income.

The protesters stated they had officially appealed to the Sighnaghi municipality for help. The deputy mayor, Madona Batiashvili, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the municipality would act as an intermediary between the residents and the Ministry of Economy and forward their request to the ministry, though she could not predict whether it would be accepted.

The same day, the leader of the political movement Droa, Elene Khoshtaria, met with the protesters in Ts’nori and urged the authorities to cancel the sale of the community’s pasture lands.

A week later, on May 15, 2021, residents of Sakobo and Mashnaari villages in the same municipality held a similar protest after 250 hectares of land they had used as pasture were reclassified by the state as arable land.

The sale of pastures also triggered protests in Kareli municipality. On May 15, villagers from Mokhisi demanded the Ministry of Economy reconsider its decision.

Protesters said that 28 hectares of land in Mokhisi had been leased to six families for five years for cultivating annual crops. When their lease expired, they sought renewal and submitted documents through the municipality to the ministry.

The Mokhisi protest continued on May 23. Demonstrators claimed that one of the company’s founders — Jondo Nanetashvili — was the brother of Badri Nanetashvili, deputy state minister for reconciliation, and accused people close to the ruling Georgian Dream party of using their connections to acquire the land.

They demanded that their majoritarian MP visit the village. MP Zaal Duglaze, together with Kareli mayor Zaza Guliashvili, met with them and said the land had been auctioned legally and sold to a bona fide buyer.

Notably, Duglaze’s brother, Giorgi Duglaze, then head of the National Agency of State Property, had overseen the auction of the Mokhisi land.

During the discussion, residents and European Georgia member Besik Donadze suggested relocating the land owned by Agroindustry, which led to a verbal altercation and insults.