A new business opportunity! Check the litter tray contents. Maybe I'll just forget the beans and use the pooh to make the mother in law a nice cup of coffee!

Now I have just got to work out a way of force feeding the cats the beans.



Manila - A small Philippine company is combining commerce with conservation by offering one of the world's most prized coffees - made from the beans found in the droppings of the civet cat.

The product, known as "Coffee Alamid", after the local name of the wild animal, is being sold in a few local shops but may soon be exported, the owner of the Bote Central company said on Wednesday.

The blend uses coffee beans processed through the digestive system of the vulnerable Philippine civet, a small, cat-like nocturnal mammal closely related to the mongoose.

The beans, which are swallowed and passed out whole by the animal, are gathered from droppings found at the farm.

The product sells for 3 500 pesos (about R350) per kilogram.

Coffee from beans found in civet droppings in Vietnam has gained a reputation among connoisseurs as among the best in the world. A similar product is sold in Indonesia.

Vie Reyes, owner and sales manager of Bote Central, said the Trade Department and the International Coffee Board were certifying the company's bean-droppings as genuine and the Netherlands was interested in bringing the product to Europe.

Reyes, whose group is involved in preserving native sugar palm, was surprised to discover farmers in the Philippines have long been making coffee from the beans in local civet droppings.

Her company, with the help of non-government organisations, is working on a programme that would train certain farmers to gather the beans, Reyes said.

This will help in the conservation of the civet which has been made "vulnerable" but not yet endangered by destruction of its habitat and because it is being hunted for its meat.