Convert csv to parquet file using python

Using the packages pyarrow and pandas you can convert CSVs to Parquet without using a JVM in the background:

import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv('example.csv')
df.to_parquet('output.parquet')

One limitation in which you will run is that pyarrow is only available for Python 3.5+ on Windows. Either use Linux/OSX to run the code as Python 2 or upgrade your windows setup to Python 3.6.