90% of the people who drink Cerveza Nativa are small farmers in Northern Colombia. But they’re also businessmen who grow a wide variety of crops, including cassava, the main ingredient in Nativa beer.

In 2022, Colombian farmers lost 4.9M acres during the 2022 rainy season due to the effects of rapid climate change, including most of the cassava harvest.

The people who drink Nativa aren’t just farmers, they’re our business partners. So, we repurposed the bottle of their preferred beer and created a tool to protect one of the most important industries in Colombia: the farming industry, and our cassava.

Situation:

Farmland in Northern Colombia’s mountainous Cordoba region is suffering from unprecedented heavy rainfall due to rapid climate change.

In 2022 alone, over 4.9 million acres of Colombia’s crops were lost during rainy season, including cassava, the main ingredient used to make Cerveza Nativa.

Unfortunately, traditional tools used to predict bad weather can’t keep up with climate change. And uneven mountain terrain renders modern weather radar practically useless.

The inability to proactively protect their fields puts farmers’ income and their crops — including cassava — at great risk.

Brief:

Help Nativa support cassava farmers better protect their crops from the devastating effects of climate change.

Objectives:

Fight the war on climate change and help small farmers protect cassava – and all their crops.

Strengthen crop and financial security for farmers and have enough cassava to make Cerveza Nativa.

Reinforce brand loyalty amongst the small farmers who grow Cerveza Nativa’s cassava.

Nativa Meter is a beer bottle that’s been repurposed as a rain gauge that gives farmers vital rainfall information they can’t see with the naked eye, or learn from a weather app.

Working with Bavaria-Ab InBev agriculture experts and National University of Colombia MSc. Meteorologist Jhon Jairo Valencia, we transformed the manufacturing and design of our bottle to help farmers measure precipitation more accurately and make better decisions to protect their crops from the devastating effects of climate change.

Rainfall markers on the label indicate if precipitation is light, intermediate or heavy. This helps farmers track rain patterns to better predict the unpredictable climate change effects, and estimate crops groundwater levels. This helps farmers take action by adjusting planting and harvest times, irrigating crops more efficiently and knowing when to open drainage systems, to prevent overwatering – and killing – their crops.

• Data gathering

Collected data wasn’t used for marketing purposes, but instead, for better farm production that benefits everyone.

A WhatsApp number on the label connects farmers with our team of agricultural experts who analyze weather data and give farmers realtime advice. That data is then shared with Colombia's National Meteorology Institute to help them build a realtime weather database for each municipality, to to help better predict weather and avoid future disasters.

• Target audience

Small independent farmers in northern Colombia

Men and women 18-55

Minimally educated, but literate

Average income: about $1700 USD/year

• Approach

Cerveza Nativa’s relationship with consumers isn’t a monologue from brand to consumer. Instead, it’s a conversation between friends and business partners, helping each other in a neighborly win-win manner.

• Implementation

Because Nativa Meter is printed on the bottle, implementation was as simple as manufacturing beer, loading delivery trucks and delivering them to local stores using Bavaria/AB InBev’s extensive distribution system.

• Timeline

March 2022: heavy floods strike Colombia

May 2022: concept approved, manufacturing analysis begins

July 2022: prototyping and testing begins

October 2022: design approved, production begins

February 2023: Nativa Meter distribution begins in time for cassava harvest

• Placement

Nativa Meters were placed on the side of the bottle and sold in local markets for farmers to buy, drink and then use the bottle to protect their crops.

• Scale

Initial production run was 20,000 bottles, which now protect 280,000 acres of crops – 4% of all of Colombia’s farmland. Our goal is to cover 50% of all Colombia’s farmland in 2025. We are also taking the innovation to other local crop brands of our portfolio.

• Sales

38% increase from March-April 2023. The initial run of 20,000 Nativa Meters sold out in less than a week and were immediately put to use.

At $0.34 USD per beer, farmers save 98% on a rain gauge versus $18 USD.

Net savings from the initial run of 20,000 bottles: $353,200 – the equivalent of 208 Colombian farmers’ annual incomes.

• Engagement

200% increase in brand interactions from March-April 2023.

• Reach

280,000 acres of Colombia’s Cordoba region are now protected by the Nativa Meter, with a goal of covering 50% of all Colombian farmland in 2025.

We're also sharing Nativa Meter's innovations with other AB InBev local crop beers in countries whose farmers also suffer from the effects of climate change, starting with Ecuador's Nuestra Siembra and Peru's Golden.

• Achievement against business targets

75% increase in brand favorability in northern Colombia

81% increase in purchase intent

Cerveza Nativa is AB InBev/Bavaria’s first beer made with cassava grown along Colombia's farmers from Córdoba and Sucre regions.

Nativa’s mission has been to make a positive impact on agricultural development in the northern region. They do this by connecting small and medium farmers, creating more favorable work and trade conditions and helping to improve overall farmers and their families' quality of life.

Nativa already enjoys a strong, unique working relationship with local farmers. The creation of the Nativa Meter is just one more way of strengthening an already close bond and proving to farmers that Nativa will always have their back.

In 2022 alone, over 4.9 million acres of Colombia’s crops were lost during rainy season, including cassava, the main ingredient used to make our beer. So we immediately thought on an innovative, easy to use and scalable way to help farmers fight the effects of climate change.

Because Colombia’s farmers live well below the poverty line, washed out crops mean wiped out income. Being able to help protect their crops with a rain gauge for almost nothing is huge. Getting one that’s already on the bottle of something farmers already buy and drink is massive.

Lastly, uneven mountainous terrain makes the most advanced up-to-date weather radar tracking systems unable to accurately depict current and precise weather patterns. This makes the Nativa Meter’s reportage of conditions in these areas crucial to helping farmers in the region prepare for bad weather.