Protecting coffee farmers and building resilience into the supply chain
BY BLUE MARBLE MICRO
REGION
Latin America
INDUSTRY
Agriculture
PARTNERS
Agribusiness
CATEGORY
Modeling, Covering
SERVICE
Insurance
RISK
Excess Rainfall and Drought
STRUCTURE
Meso
IMPACT
Climate resilience and adaptation, Living Income
Challenge
For smallholder coffee farmers, unpredictable rainfall, whether prolonged drought or sudden heavy rainfall, can damage blossoms, reduce bean quality, and sharply cut yields. These small farms have little or no access to affordable, timely protection against weather-related losses and each extreme weather event threatens not only their livelihoods and household income, but also their capacity to invest in sustainable practices that would make them more resilient in the future. Beyond individual households, these challenges impact entire supply chains, putting pressure on the both resilience and stability of global coffee markets as well as the communities connected to sourcing.
Solution
In response, a leading coffee multinational partnered with Blue Marble to co-design an innovative parametric weather-index insurance program. First launched in Latin America and later expanded to multiple coffee-growing regions worldwide, the initiative leverages rainfall data to automatically trigger payouts when critical phases of the coffee crop are disrupted by drought or excess rainfall. By eliminating the need for complex claims processes and delivering rapid financial relief, this insurance provides farmers with automatic payouts in the event of a climate event. For the multinational buyer, it strengthens the resilience and reliability of its supply chain, creating a shared benefit that links farmer security with long-term sustainability.
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