Farmer finds a way to save civet cats, make business out of civet coffee

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—It was pity for the civets, or locally known as musangs, that prompted farm owner Philip Dizon to ask his neighbor, all farmers, in Kapatagan in Digos, Davao del Sur, one day to just ensnare the animals and turn them over to him alive.

Dizon recounted to reporters here how civets were being killed by locals in Kapatagan.

“Civet cats were the farmers’ biggest enemy and were considered pests in the farm,” he said.

Dizon said locals would ensnare the animals and then kill them one by one.

“The only way these farmers could get rid of them is by killing these animals. So I thought that there must be something we could do to save the animals and help the farmers at the same time,” he said.

Dizon told locals they could continue ensnaring the animals and then give them to him alive

The locals agreed.

So as the number of the civets caged in his farm grew larger, Dizon thought of feeding them fresh coffee beans.

He knew that civet coffee is prized worldwide and that starting a production would be the wiser thing to do.

“These green beans are excreted by the weasel-like animal because they can only digest the pulp,” he said.

Dizon then collected the excreted coffee beans, washed and dried it before packing it.

Just weeks after he started collecting the civet excrement, Dizon’s Mt. Apo Civet and Altura coffee beans showed up in select shops in the city.

Today, he produces 60 to 90 parchment bags of civet coffee every week, which are also being sold to regular buyers from Manila and other countries.

Dizon’s civet coffee is being sold at about P1,000 per 100-gram bag.

Business continues to be rosy up to this day.

“For coffee lovers, the taste and aroma of civet coffee, the world’s most expensive coffee is all that matters even if they knew it came from inside the cat called civet,” he said.