Betsabeth Alvarez, a 98-years-old Afro-Colombian farmer, opens a cacao pod with a machete during a harvest on a traditional cacao farm in Cuernavaca, Cauca, Colombia, 1 December 2021. 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...
more »

Betsabeth Alvarez, a 98-years-old Afro-Colombian farmer, opens a cacao pod with a machete during a harvest on a traditional cacao farm in Cuernavaca, Cauca, Colombia, 1 December 2021. 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.
« less