The most expensive coffee in the world draws animal cruelty issues

By Maria Gomez de Sicart

Civets are kept in cages and forced to eat cherries that will later be used to make topi luwak coffee. Credit: Flickr

Kopi luwak, the coffee made from cherries defecated by wild Asian civets, is raising ethical concerns over its production.

Animal activists are urging tourists visiting kopi farms in Indonesia not to buy the coffee, commonly tagged as the most expensive coffee in the world. They claim that around 70 per cent of kopi luwak is fake, which means that the coffee comes from caged civets instead of wild ones.

A report by journal Animal Welfare that assessed the living conditions of around 50 civets held in cages at 16 plantations in Bali found that all the farms failed the basic animal requirements.

Cages were too small and unsanitary, civets were poorly fed only with coffee cherries, and many were sleeping on wire floors.  

Moreover, reports by National Geographic and BBC have come forward about the cruelty involved in kopi luwak production.

Richard Hardwick, a coffee expert and owner of Halo Coffee, says that only a ten per cent of farmers follow the traditional methods, and fake kopi trading is making it hard for them to stand out.

“There are tons of unscrupulous people keeping civets in cages which is poor and wrong. Unfortunately, it means that the guys who have been doing it for centuries have to fight hard to maintain the reputation, so now there is a certification system in place. If you’re not paying 10 pounds a cup then it’s not wild kopi,” he says.

Kopi luwak became popular after coffee consultant Tony Wild introduced it in the United States, and film “The Bucket List” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show” gave attention to it. The high demand has turned kopi luwak into a conflict of interest and the civets into a production chain.

Producers are capturing and keeping wild civets in cages to boost production, but they keep selling civet coffee as “wild” even though it comes from the faeces of caged civets.

Many speciality coffee people in the UK believe that kopi luwak is a gimmick and choose not to commercialise it.

Algerian Coffee Stores is one of the few places in London that sells wild topi luwak.

Marisa Crocetta is the manager for Algerian Coffee Stores, one of the few places in London that sells wild kopi. The price? Almost £20 for 100g. “Unless you have the cages and force-feed the animals, you can only get certain amounts of it because it’s rare to source,” she says.

Kopi luwak is nicknamed the most expensive coffee in the world for a reason, but it might be time to look beyond that.

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