On a cacao farm

Cuernavaca, Padilla, Cauca, Colombia – December 2021

Betsabeth Alvarez, a 98-years-old Afro-Colombian farmer, walks amongst the trees on a traditional cacao farm in Cuernavaca, Cauca, Colombia. Although cacao has been grown in Colombia for centuries, Colombian cacao production is focused primarily on the domestic market in which the demand for drinking chocolate plays a crucial part. Cacao trees have been cultivated mainly in small mixed crop farms, operated on sustainability principles. With the global growth of chocolate popularity and the Colombian post-conflict economic development in recent years, Colombian farmers are gradually increasing their cacao production and chocolate export.