Questions linger following a statement released on Friday by Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC) that 13,500 kilograms of chicken meat was confiscated and later “buried” due to unspecified food safety concerns.

In a bizarre twist, the SRC claimed that representatives of Armen-Hamik Brothers LLC, the company that imported the meat, later went to the site, dug up the chicken meat, and shipped it to its headquarters.

What the company intended to do with the exhumed meat remains a mystery.

Armenia’s Food Safety Inspectorate now tells Hetq the chicken parts were imported from Brazil from Seara Foods and that none of the meat reached store shelves in the country.

Since a legal investigation into the matter has been launched, no further details have been released. Babken Pipoyan, founding president of the Informed and Protected Consumer NGO, says the SRC report lacks information on when dug up meat was shipped to
the company warehouse.

Pipoyan says the inspectorate’s claim that none of the tainted meat reached retail stores needed greater verification.

Armen-Hamik Brothers LLC was registered in 1995 as a poultry trader for specialized retail stores. It also imports vegetable oil, cereals, condensed milk, meat, chocolate, toys and sanitary napkins. The company also produces instant tea and coffee, and beef stew.

The company is best known for producing the Original Coffee and King coffees brands. The factory is in Geghashen, Kotayk province. Hetq, in 2012, wrote that Armen-Hamik Brothers also imported buffalo meat and the company was suspected of involvement in a 2013 scam in which the Artsakh Defense Army was supplied with frozen buffalo meat instead of beef.

The company was founded by Martik (Artur) Andreasyan, aka Coffee Artur.

His son Armen owns Armcom LLC, an internet and TV provider in Kotayk province. 

The Andreasyans own the Original Restaurant located in the Kotayk village of Katnaghbyur and the chain of Supermarket Original stores in the town of Abovyan.

Armen-Hamik Brothers LLC paid AMD 739 million ($1.9 million) in taxes in the first half of 2024, ranking it 212th in the list of largest taxpayers.