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cathing criticism of Indonesian luwak (civet) coffee producers has not persuaded them to halt production in West Lampung.

Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claims that animal abuse is inherent in the production of civet coffee beans.

Most civets, PETA said, were confined to cages and subjected to cruel and unnatural treatment.

Such practices were discovered during PETA'€™s three-month investigation in the Philippines and Indonesia, which included visits to eight civet coffee farms on Sumatra and Java.

The animal rights group found caged civets displaying severely distressed behavior, such as spinning around, chewing on bars and head-shaking.

As a result of its findings, PETA has called on consumers to boycott civet coffee, saying that purchasing a product that was the direct result of animal abuse supported the abuse.

PETA'€™s recent claims have instead been received by civet coffee farmers in Lampung as a challenge to improve production quality.

'€œWe are building our business and the outlook is good. We regard criticism as a normal thing. The important thing is that civet coffee consumers still trust us,'€ said
Paryoto, a civet coffee producer in Way Tenong district, West Lampung.

Paryoto acknowledged that civet coffee cultivation was one option for coffee farmers to overcome the fluctuating price of coffee, as they need not worry about the plummeting price of coffee in the global market.

West Lampung is home to 10 groups of civet coffee producers, each of whom sells more than 700 quintals of civet coffee per month. Civet coffee from West Lampung is primarily exported to South Korea and Taiwan. Luwak
coffee powder sells for Rp 750,000
(US$68) per kilogram.

According to Paryoto, producing civet coffee was more profitable than regular coffee beans.

'€œThe process is also easy. And of course, not all coffee producers in Indonesia treat civets in the way described by PETA,'€ he said.

One kilogram of civet coffee beans can reach prices of between Rp 250,000 and Rp 750,000 compared to ordinary, dried coffee beans, which are currently priced at between Rp 17,000 and Rp 20,000 per kg.

'€œIn powder form, 1 kilogram of civet coffee can cost around Rp 1 million,'€ Paryoto added.

Another civet coffee farmer in Way Mengaku subdistrict, Balikbukit district, Wahyu Anggoro, said a number of investors had begun to establish civet coffee estates in
Lampung.

'€œFor coffee farmers and those with large amounts of investment capital, the civet coffee business has great potential. Traders usually sell it at a higher price, up to Rp 1 million per kg, while the price of civet coffee beans can reach Rp 200,000 per kg,'€ Wahyu said.

Civet coffee beans are the result of ordinary coffee beans being eaten by a civet that undergo fermentation for around 12 hours in the animal'€™s stomach, which has various enzymes. The coffee beans are excreted together with its fecal waste.

'€œMany foreign tourists buy civet coffee in large volumes, sometimes hundreds of kg at a time. Some of them hail from Thailand, who travel directly to West Lampung to buy the civet coffee,'€ he said.

According to Wahyu, civet coffee producers need to be smart by monitoring conditions and seeking information on the price of civet coffee on the global market.

'€œIf they don'€™t have adequate information, farmers can suffer losses, for example, by continuing to process and stockpile their production despite low prices. If civet coffee beans are not immediately processed and milled into powder, their quality tends to drop,'€ he said.