The Civet Project Challenges Industry Silence on Cruel Coffee Trade
- The Civet Project
- May 12
- 3 min read
The Civet Project attends London Coffee Festival to call for industry action against the worlds cruellest coffee with new campaign: “Civet-Free; Confronting the stain on the coffee industry".
The global coffee industry can no longer turn a blind eye to the profound animal suffering brewing in its supply chain. Following our eye-opening investigative e-commerce report and documentary, the Civet Project Foundation is calling on coffee companies around the world to actively discredit and reject civet coffee.
This week, we are taking our "Civet-Free" campaign directly to the industry, exhibiting at the upcoming London Coffee Festival (May 14–17, 2026, at The Truman Brewery, Stand M10). There, we will bring together coffee lovers and coffee professionals to confront the glaring ethical blind spot in the specialty coffee world.
What is civet coffee?
Civet coffee, or “kopi luwak”, is marketed as a luxury product made from coffee beans that have passed through the digestive tract of Asian Palm civets, small nocturnal mammals native to Southeast Asia. Once hailed as the rarest and most expensive coffee in the world, with some cups priced as high as £50, civet coffee is now widely sold online for as little as £15 per packet.
Our latest campaign is driven by the alarming findings of our 2025 Industry Leaders report that reviewed the sale of civet coffee on Amazon, eBay and Etsy. Our investigation exposed widespread policy breaches and fraudelent claims such as “100% wild collected”, “high welfare” and “certified cage-free” alongside named “certifiers”.
Our investigation showed that civet civet coffee products that claimed certification from named organisations for being 'wild collected' or 'cage-free', were all either fraudulent or untraceable. Shockling, civet coffee retailers falsely claimed certification from organisations such as WWF, Rainforest Alliance, and World Animal Protection, all of whom confirmed no affiliation with civet coffee or the brands in question.
The consumer standards, animal welfare, environmental and sustainability issues associated with civet coffee products actively breach seven platform policies employed by Ebay, Amazon and Etsy. And, these misleading practices violate UK consumer protection laws, including the CMA Green Code and the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
By selling civet coffee with fraudulent animal welfare claims, sellers and platforms exploit consumer interest in animal welfare. False welfare assurances deceive consumers into purchasing products that are reliant on animal suffering. Our award-winning investigative documentary, “Civet Coffee; From Rare to Reckless” also exposed the physical realities of civets caught up in the trade, with horrific welfare conditions including small wire cages, consumer deception and the wider ramifications of disease spread and the snaring crisis.
Dr Jes Hooper, CEO of The Civet Project:
“For too long, the coffee industry has prided itself on ethical sourcing and sustainability while completely ignoring the brutal reality of civet coffee. By not acknowledging how these products are a stain upon the industry, they allow it to continue with its “luxury specialty coffee” reputation. It is our hope that our campaign will lead to greater action within the coffee industry itself”
Call to action
We are calling on all coffee companies, big and small, to publicly cut ties with the civet coffee industry and pledge to be a “Civet-Free” company. This action is vital to shutting down a cruel, unethical and dangerous industry that risks not only civets themselves, but threatens disease outbreak and worsens the biodiversity crisis.
The Civet Project has also called on consumers to speak up for their consumer rights and sign the petition to demand that eBay, Amazon and Etsy ban the sale of civet coffee across their platforms due to its widespread policy breaches and un-certifiable nature.
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