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- Kopi luwak is a coffee delicacy made from civet feces and is popular in Bali.
- A PETA investigation found civets kept in cages where workers harvest their feces.
- The kopi luwak industry is big business, with a market value of over $7 billion.
In Bali, opting for beans made from the poop of civets is the most expensive way to take your coffee. Every year, tourists travel to the Indonesian island and drink civet coffee — locally known as kopi luwak — at the more than a dozen cafés and farms listed on Google Maps.
But the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said in an investigative video posted on YouTube on March 5 that tourists should be wary of drinking kopi luwak, as the coffee beans are collected from civets kept in wire cages.
The video comprised footage of several civets held in captivity. Jason Baker, the senior vice president of PETA, told CNBC that the footage was taken at a farm in Catur, a small town 30 miles north of Ubud that'spopular for trekking in Bali.
In the video, one person could be heard saying the coffee beans are collected from the civet droppings found in the "wild jungle" — but PETA wrote in the video that this isn't true.
"Deliberately misleading claims about how civet coffee is obtained are rampant in Bali," the video's in-text caption read.
One person, whom PETA identified as a kopi luwak peddler, said that tourists don't know that the civets are held captive.
"That's because we forcibly [confine] them," the person said in response to the investigator asking if kopi luwak is better than regular coffee.
The video ends with the in-text caption: "Don't be fooled. There is no ethically made civet coffee."
Baker told CNBC that it's not possible to produce kopi luwak in mass quantities without caging civets. He said civets were also found to have been fed rotten coffee berries, covered in feces, and had open wounds. The Bali Tourism Board did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider regarding its regulations on producing and selling kopi luwak on the island.
"But the confinement, suffering, and sadness endured by civet cats for kopi luwak aren't among them. Tourists be warned: stay away from civet coffee," he said. PETA and Baker did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.
Kopi luwak is made by cleaning and roasting partially digested coffee beans excreted by civets. Kopi luwak is also known for its high price point, costing between $45 and $600 per pound, Baker told CNBC. It's big business — according to data from the Ohio-based research company Spherical Insights, the market size of the kopi luwak industry was worth $7.16 billion, which is projected to grow to $11 billion by 2032.
It's not the first time PETA has called for tourists to boycott kopi luwak. In 2022, PETA said tourists should avoid the kopi luwak after civets were found to be distressed when their feces were collected.
