Amparo Pajoy Trujillo

Along the skirts of El Nevado del Huila volcano, in the vereda Alto Cañada is Finca los Alpes. This farm is joint owned by Amparo Pajoy, Reinel Paz and their family. Reinel Paz originally comes from the department of Cauca, but more than 30 years ago, he moved to La Plata, Huila where he met Amparo Pajoy. When they decided to marry and form a family, they purchased Finca Los Alpes to start producing coffee. From the very beginning, Amparo and Reinel have paid close attention to the processes that they carry out on the farm. However, it wasn’t until 2012 that they decided to focus even more on what they were doing in order to produce better quality coffee. Focusing on quality proved to be the key for the Paz Pajoy family, as it allowed them to earn better and this in turn allowed them to invest more in the farm.

“When you work with love and passion, when you do things right, you will do very well in life. Through the production of coffee, we have prospered.” says Amparo Pajoy. With the extra incomes that they have made, the family has been able to improve their post-harvest infrastructure as well as their house. They now have a much better quality of life compared to a decade ago and this is thanks to the hard work that they put into their coffee. Finca Los Alpes is a perfect example of a family business. Everyone works together, towards the objective of producing great coffee and being profitable doing so. Amparo is in charge of washing the coffee and Reinel is in charge of harvesting, fertilizing, and managing the coffee trees with help of their three of their sons. To achieve the quality that they produce, they have done numerous experiments based on trial and error and every day they focus on becoming better and improving their quality. Their short-term project is to implement better residual water treatment in order to become more environmentally responsible.