How Did Civet Cat Land In Coorg?

Planning a trip to Karnataka? Then why not take a visit to Coorg, a beautiful, hilly rural district in Karnataka? And needless to say, you’ll put an end to your long-standing doubt: what link this rural district and Civet cats have.  

What does Coorg have to do with Civet cats?

India, the third-largest producer and exporter of coffee in Asia, has started producing the most expensive coffee on a small scale. The civet cats’ waste is used to make this coffee, and you can visit using a car rental in Bangalore.

In Coorg, you can find civet cats, a nocturnal species that resembles a raccoon and is in danger of going extinct in the Western Ghats. They often reside on coffee plantations and in tropical jungles. These small animals are known for their faeces, more than worth the bother, despite the fact that they frequently annoy villagers by ascending buildings at night and making excessive noise. 

Civet coffee is the priciest coffee in the world for obvious reasons, but if you are a true coffee connoisseur, you won’t hesitate to pay Rs 20,000–25,000/kg! You would have assumed that this coffee is not your typical cup of joe, given its absurd price. It is notable for its incredibly peculiar production process instead. It is a civet’s cat waste. Only three to four countries, including India, produce this special coffee. But what’s the story behind this priced coffee?

History of civet coffee

When Thamoo Poovaiah was a child, he frequently saw civet cat droppings around their coffee estates in Coorg, southwest Karnataka. But it took him years before he realised he was sitting on a jackpot because of the growing demand for civet coffee on the international market. Currently, Coorg Consolidated Commodities (CCC), where Poovaiah serves as a managing partner, is the source of the most expensive coffee in the world.

But what he shared with us was a sobering eye-opener. Mr. N. G. Thimmaiah procured 10 kg of Kopi Luwak in 2015 and shipped it to Switzerland for a respectable sum. Unfortunately, his production of Kopi Luwak coffee fell by 50% in both 2016 and 2017 to just 5 kg.

Mr. Thimmaiah eventually learned that the Civet Cats were being killed by the farmers who lived next to his property because they were stealing their coffee beans. They kill the cats because, as Mr. Thimmaiah explains, “to them it is very easy, the cats eat their coffee.” 

Mr. Thimmaiah attempted to persuade his fellow farmers to stop killing the civet cats by explaining to them the value of the coffee, but these farmers already thought Mr. Thimmaiah was crazy because he only grows his coffee organically using natural compost and no fertiliser. As a result, when he told them that the poop these Civet Cats produced was extremely precious, they laughed him out of the room.

Because they consume fruit and so spread seeds throughout tropical forests, civet cats help to preserve the health of forest ecosystems. Civet cats have occasionally been invasive and regarded as pests, like in Indonesia. That is not the case in the Coorg region, where they contribute to the preservation of the ecosystem.

Conclusion 

Out of all the Kodagu specialities offered here, including different coffees and cocoa goods, aside from the quiches and pies that the café sources from home chefs, the civet coffee is unquestionably the star attraction. And unlike the original civet coffee from nations like Indonesia, where the animals are caged to ensure a steady supply of “raw material,” there are no horrifying backstories here, and you can visit Bangalore to Coorg cabs.