Single Estate: Smallholders of Inzá Cauca, Colombia

The municipality of Inzá is located in the corner of the Department of Cauca, bordering with Tolima and Huila, and looks over the Pacific Ocean. Situated on the Colombian Plateau, beautifully surrounded by the heights of Tolima and Huila, the area is important source of water and wildlife as well as being grade coffee growing land.

This particular coffee was produced by over 5o smallholders from the areas of Pedregal and San Antonio. It is top quality speciality grade coffee, with every microlot scoring 85 points or above by the community cupping lab.

The very tough standards mean that there is only a very limited quantity of this wonderful mix of 70%+ Caturra and approx. 30% Variedad Colombia.

Cauca’s difficult and violent past had prevented the FNC, the national coffee board, and specialty-focused exporters from establishing a presence in the region. As violence has diminished, it has meant that coffee growers  in the area have been able to get access to markets for quality.

In the past, the smallholders often sold their coffee to large exporters, not being able to take full advantage of the region's unique sensory coffees. When they began selling their coffee directly to importers and roasters, everything changed. When they extended the
model to small holder farmers in Antioquia, they also changed everything for them.
Today, Pergamino, the collective, works with more than 600 smallholder farmers in four regions (Cauca, Antioquia, Huila and Nariño), and their influence continues to grow. They have developed the relationship with the communities over time, providing invaluable feedback on quality and training in quality assessment. They are committed to transparency in their partnerships with these farmers, ensuring that profit margins are
clear and that value added by quality goes directly to the producer. The premiums that Pergamino pays range from 30-300% over market prices (depending on cupping score and volume). They also provide technical assistance so that farmers can continue to improve crop quality. 

Specifically in Cauca, they have launched a new pilot project with the Pillimue family in San Antonio, from where this coffee was sourced. In order to offer up market access more widely in the region and to put more control in the hands of local people, the family (who has long supplied coffee to Pergamino from their various family member farms) has opened a small warehouse and cupping lab with funding from Pergamino. They act as logistics and sourcing partners and are able to provide quality assessment services for nearly 150 families in the area, which is far more impactful than any other regional association in the area, reaching not just San Antonio, but now also the towns of Belen, La Palmera, Aguablanca, Pedregal, Palmichal, San Jose and Santa Teresa. Most importantly, the Pillimue/Pergamino partnership enables more families than ever before to access higher prices by placing coffee on the specialty market.

During the harvest season, Pergamino has committed to monthly visits to the group in order to cup and advise on quality. All coffee produced by the group that cups at 85+ points will be purchased, and higher scoring lots may be held aside as microlots to be marketed under the farmer/family’s own name.