Meet the Pillimué family

Led by matriarch María Rosa, the Pillimué family are captains of industry among Inzá’s coffee-producing community.

Published 1 May 2025

Since we first began working together in 2016, we’ve always had an affinity with Pergamino’s approach to sourcing. Managing Director Pedro Echavarría Jr. has long held the belief that, “Farmers don’t need more advice, they just need good prices for their coffee.” With this motto in mind, the exporting company works with thousands of independent producers across Colombia, yet nowhere else are relationships as meaningful as they are in the municipality of Inzá, in the country’s state of Cauca. 

Pergamino’s relationship with producers in this privileged region of Colombia dates back to 2012 — when the family-owned company began to explore regions to source and export coffee from. Up until then, Pergamino had only shipped coffees grown at their own estates, all located in the state of Antioquia. Yet, they knew that potential for their quality and traceability expectations existed across the country, once the right producing relationships were established. For the company’s Director of Coffee, Léo Henao, one family stood out as the perfect candidate: the Pillimués, from the town of San Antonio in Inzá.

Led by matriarch María Rosa, the Pillimué family are captains of industry among Inzá’s coffee-producing community. Pergamino initially connected with them through a local association of producers Léo had worked with previously. Eventually, when growers decided to sell their crop to Pedro and Léo directly, María Rosa and husband Alfonso stepped in, offering a warehouse that’s part of a general store they run in San Antonio to serve as a collection point. Their son Nilson spearheaded the program, with Pergamino funding part of the upgrades necessary to build a QC lab onsite. 

For the town, the shift was transformative, as they began to sell their coffee with greater transparency — earning a fair payment on delivery, along with a second financial premium later on, once the lot had been sold as part of a regional blend or single estate offering. For Pergamino, it solidified their bond with the Pillimués and allowed them to establish more programs to support growers in Inzá, as these would now run in partnership with one of the most trusted members of the community. Since then, Pedro and Léo have witnessed the lives of the producers they work with here improve considerably: from renovations to home kitchens and bathrooms, to upgrades at the small wet mills they operate during the harvest, or the numerous new plots of land planted with varieties like Gesha, Chiroso and Pink Bourbon. 

Today, Pergamino’s relationships with producers in Inzá are some of their most exciting. Since building an organic fertiliser factory that offers inputs at cost price, many of the region’s growers have doubled down on their chemical-free approach to farming. As the health of the estates has improved, and prices earned each harvest increased, many of the region’s youth have taken up coffee farming alongside their parents. This much-needed generational transition is just another sign that the future of San Antonio’s coffee-producing communities is bright and promising.

From the very early days of our Colombian sourcing, we’ve had the privilege of purchasing coffee from nearly every member of the Pillimué family — not just María Rosa and Alfonso, but also from sons Robinson, Aníbaland Neyid. We feel deeply invested in Pergamino’s work with the family, and are thrilled by the results of their partnership. As Pedro recently put it, when talking about the success of their organic fertiliser factory, “What makes Inzá so special to us, is the sense of community present. Everyone works together, everyone supports each other. No one is trying to compete with each other […] In order for these style of community programs to work, one needs to have a very strong and centralised sense of community.  You can’t just transfer it to any region of the country and expect immediate results.”