Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/673312
48 Tea & Coffee Trade Journal | www.teaandcoffee.net foraged wild animal coffee and has been part of the cultural heritage of Sumatran coffee farmers for centuries," said Guy Wilmot, director of coffee buying for London, England-based Sea Island Coffee importers, roasters and retailers. A vocal supporter of this high- ly debated specialty bean, Wilmot said Luwak coffee is a "naturally occurring gastronomic phenomenon," which turns "already very good coffee beans into something exceptional." He also recog- nizes that because of the high prices, cases have been discovered where "unscru- pulous individuals and companies have sought to capitalize on it by unethical means" by producing larger quantities from civets held in cages. In 2013, several news media reported on a select investi- gation where it had been found that the rapid surge in demand for Luwak beans in some cases had been supplied by farms whose production was based on captured civets held in tiny cages and treated on numerous counts to what animal welfare activists constitute cruel practices. Acknowledging the negative impact that "bad press" had on the local Luwak farmers, the Indonesian Coffee Exporters Association, AEKI, was quick to call on the government to "become more involved in this industry and monitor that farmers treat the animals well," said Mulyono Susilo, chairman of AEKI's local office on the central island of Java. Many in the industry were similarly quick to support the call to ban not only what Susilo describes as "industrialized" Luwak coffee but civet beans all togeth- er. This, argue industry officials like Sea Island's Wilmot, is not only a misguid- ed response, but punishes hundreds of thousands of small-holder growers across Indonesia who, for centuries, have relied on collecting the Luwak droppings to earn a small harvest bonus of between USD $50 and $70 per kilogram. "We never have and never will endorse or support the capture and caging of ani- mals for coffee production, but most of the people who collect and clean these 'dropped' beans are landless rural workers who exist in harmony with the animals and the ecosystem, and for whom these foraged beans represent a significant part of their livelihood," Wilmot said. Journeying into the deep forests with local Luwak hunters through the coffee highlands in the province of Aceh on the northernmost tip of Sumatra, there is little doubt as to the reality of Wilmot's statement hitting the key point when it comes to Luwak coffee. Here in the Gayo Mountains droppings as tiny as five to six beans are carefully collected and put into a bag separate from the main coffee har- vest, each bean counted for the precious extra bonus it's worth. "The best time to find Luwak coffee is in the early mornings when the droppings are fresh, because the Luwak is a noctur- nal animal, but it really takes a long time to collect enough to have one kilogram to sell, and it's a lot of work," said local Gayo farmer Misrun, who has a total of 1200 trees on half a hectare of land. "All the farmers here are small and have at the most one hectare of land, and if they collect the droppings they find every day during the harvest season they can get, on average, two kilo- grams of clean parchment coffee from one hectare of land," said Djumhur Abubakar, a farmer himself who also works as an agent for certification pro- grams, including Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade and organic. Following the media awareness raised in 2013 numerous actions have been taken to correct the practices and restore the name of Luwak coffee as ethically correct. While the government of Indonesia has announced new legislation prohibiting the practice of Luwak coffee production by caged animals without proper attention to animal welfare, a number of importers have worked with animal rights groups and certification programs to enhance the inspections at the local level. "Today this kind of practice is not used anymore," said Mahyuddin, anoth- er agent for certification programs in the Gayo Mountain coffee region. "After the incident several years back the local government has prohibited that prac- tice, and on the level of the coopera- special report: indonesia part iii (Above) Luwak Coffee is helps attract tourism to Bali. (Left) a woman samples Luwak Coffee.