Pedro's father, Pedro Echavarria Sr, started to grow coffee in a small, abandoned farm in the 1970s. His lifelong passion for coffee developed quickly, and expanded his company to the town of Santa Barbara, where they now conduct the majority of Pergaminos production.
The trees named “Chiroso” have cherries and seeds that are much thinner and longer in appearance compared to the traditional Caturra variety growing in the region. The variety became popular among producers in the region because of its ability to thrive under cold weather elements and its ability to shell out high productivity yields. This exclusive Chiroso lot from Finca Agualinda are the same plants that are planted at 2020 #1 Cup of Excellence winning farm, Finca Los Tres Mosqueteros by Felipe Henao Triana.

After careful, selective hand harvesting and sorting, the coffee is depulped and removed from its skin. Following depulping, it undergoes a wet fermentation for 48 hours. The coffee is then transferred into the drying silos and stored at 40 degrees Celsius for 72 hours until the coffee's moisture and water activity levels are calibrated and dried to their optimum levels.

Like all small, medium and large producers in Colombia, Pergamino spent many years helplessly riding the roller coaster of international coffee prices. They had to invest in their crops without knowing what they would sell for during their 12-year production cycle. As the saying goes in Colombia, there were years of lean cows and years of fat cows — the former being more common than the latter. They sold their coffee to large exporters, never knowing its unique sensory qualities, whose hands it ended up in, or at what price. They had no way to add value to the coffees, or receive a fair price for higher quality.

Everything changed when they started selling the coffee directly to roasters and importers around the world, gaining access to a fair and sustainable trade chain that recognized quality. Stepping off the roller coaster opened up the opportunity for them to help thousands of small coffee farmers do the same. Today Pergamino works with more than 600 producers of high-quality coffees in different regions of the country. Pergamino is committed to transparency in their partnerships with these farmers, ensuring that profit margins are clear and value added by quality goes directly to the producer. The premiums we pay for our coffees range from 30% – 300% over market prices, depending on the quality and volume of the coffee. They also support the farmers with technical assistance so that they can continue to improve crop quality. The goal is for farmers and their families to see coffee cultivation as a profitable, decent business, and not just a way to survive.

The average age of the Colombian coffee farmer is 55 years old — if we do not make it profitable and worthwhile for the next generations of growers to stay on their farms, we will lose this great tradition in one or two generations