“In the global coffee industry, valued at nearly $200 billion, millions of smallholder farmers, particularly women, face systemic challenges. Many live below the poverty line, earning less than $3.50 a day despite their critical role in coffee production. These women lack access to training, financing, and fair market opportunities, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality.” 1
Origin: Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia
Timeline: 2021-present (ongoing)
Gender: 100% female
Bean Voyage is a non-profit organisation dedicated to enabling and strengthening smallholder women coffee farmers in Latin America. It provides essential resources such as training, seed capital, mentorship, and market access. Since 2016, Bean Voyage has partnered with 1,197 women coffee farmers, offering $60,800 in seed funding and generating more than $600,000 in farm gate revenue for their coffee farms.2
The Bean Voyage approach is four-fold:
1) Training: How to grow and process high quality coffee, climate resilience and income diversification
2) Capital: Seed funding to invest in key improvements
3) Peer Mentorship: From other women producers and through their Women Powered Coffee Summits
4) Connection: Global market access to specialty market
Falcon engages with Bean Voyage in a number of ways including:
• Creating market access through promotion of their coffees and producers to our specialty clients
• Falcon Coffees is a financial sponsor of their annual Women Powered Coffee Summit.
• As of January 2025, we have partnered with Bean Voyage on a new fundraising effort for their Farmer School in Mexico.
Bean Voyage’s Farmer School
The Farmer School is designed to address the unique challenges faced by smallholder women coffee farmers in Latin America. These challenges include limited access to training, finance, mentorship, and capital, all of which restrict farmers’ ability to tackle issues such as the volatile coffee market and climate change.
The programme aims to build 500 successful, sustainable farm businesses over the next three years, promoting economic independence and long-term growth for women coffee farmers. By providing tailored training, mentorship, seed capital, and market access, Bean Voyage collaborates with smallholder women coffee producers to foster resilient and sustainable businesses.
The training, which currently supports around 650 women per year, includes a virtual curriculum and in-person boot camps. It covers topics such as growing and processing high-quality coffee, building climate resilience, and diversifying income. The programme begins with an assessment of each business’s current state, followed by goal-setting for growth and development. Core modules focus on gender and community, leadership and entrepreneurship, and business development, with training on farm renovation, processing, quality improvement, income diversification, and food security.
These modules equip women farmers with the skills needed to navigate both the challenges and opportunities they face in the coffee industry. Mentors, often alumni from the same farming communities, offer practical advice drawn from real-world experiences.
Seed Funding
To help women farmers implement their business plans, Bean Voyage provides seed funding ranging from $500 to $10,000. This funding is critical, enabling participants to start their projects and access further capital in the future.
For every dollar Bean Voyage has invested in seed funding, farmers have generated $4.50 within one year. This means that the $60,800 in seed funds has resulted in $273,600 in revenue for farmers in Bean Voyage programmes over the past five years.³
Bean Voyage Women Powered Coffee Summit
The Bean Voyage Women Powered Coffee Summit fosters mentorship and connection between female smallholder coffee growers and others in the coffee industry. It provides a safe and inclusive space where women and their stories take centre stage. The focus is on adapting to climate change, sharing market information, supporting the next generation, and promoting sustainability and diversity of ideas. The summit is all about creating relationships and networking
Women Powered Coffee Collective
Bean Voyage aims to reduce barriers to global markets for women producers, connecting them with buyers and generating direct income for farming households. They focus on quality analysis, improvement, traceability, and exportation. In 2023, 33 tonnes of green coffee were exported to roasters at an average price 190% higher than commodity markets. Since 2020, Bean Voyage has exported 67 tonnes.
If you haven’t yet donated to the Bean Voyage programme, now is the time to get involved! Your support will help create lasting change in the lives of smallholder women coffee farmers in Latin America. Together, we can build thriving coffee communities and ensure these women have the tools they need to succeed. Please speak to your Falcon contact for more information.
1 https://www.beanvoyage.org/program
2 Bean Voyage 2023 Annual Report https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ee0b1387f03a504a8d78501/t/662a61c8b8b5c90e4be517e3/1714053590275/%5Bv2%5D+Annual+Report+2023+%282%29_compressed.pdf
3 Bean Voyage 2023 Annual Report, p7