Bogotá is hosting the new Chocoshow through this Sunday, the fair that brings together producers, chocolatiers, and buyers around the fruit that for decades in Colombia was seen as “the little brother” of coffee, the country’s flagship product.
However, what is perceived today in the halls of the Corferias fairgrounds and at the tasting tables is a different reality: a growing sector with networks of small producers who see cacao as an economic and social alternative for territories scarred by violence. The 2025 fair arrives with the promise of showcasing that transformation: 68,000 tons of annual production support these expectations.
High-quality cacao production has grown exponentially, tripling over the last 10 years, as have exports, with a clear turning point after the signing of the 2016 Peace Accords with the now-defunct FARC. Although the U.S. market is by far the largest recipient of this product (36.15%), the second-largest destination is surprising: Malaysia (33.15%), followed far behind by Mexico, Argentina, Italy, and Spain, among other countries where Colombian cacao still has ample room to grow.
Chocoshow: the cocoa fair, a product that is no longer overshadows by coffee in Colombia
Recent edition figures show the scale of interest: Chocoshow brought together tens of thousands of visitors in 2024 and more than a hundred exhibitors specialized in every link of the cacao and chocolate chain.
For the 2025 edition at Bogotá’s Corferias fairgrounds, similar numbers to those recorded in previous years are expected, with around 18,000 visitors and more than 100 exhibitors, according to the organizers and the fairgrounds, making the fair one of the most important commercial meeting points in the sector in the country.
Behind the stands and the chocolate bars lies a vast rural economy: according to official and industry estimates, tens of thousands of families in Colombia depend on cocoa. Public agencies and programs have made the crop a strategic bet for replacing illicit economies and reintegrating former combatants, and in several regions cacao is already described as a “peace crop.”
Public and cooperation initiatives have worked on training, technical assistance, and market access so that displaced communities or victims of the conflict can find in cacao groves a sustainable source of income.
Cocoa, a driver of productive projects after the Peace Agreement in Colombia
On this topic, we spoke with Uriel de Jesús Chaparro, a signatory of the Peace Agreement who works in La Uribe (Meta) on the “Aromas del Tinigua” project, a product brand created by more than 500 families as a productive initiative aimed at conserving the protected area of Tinigua National Natural Park, a region battered for decades by the internal armed conflict.
Along with more than 100 other demobilized former members of the now-defunct FARC, Chaparro produces high-quality products that, in addition to consolidating a legal economy in harmony with nature, provide the livelihood these people need for their social reintegration.
“When we signed the Peace Agreement with the State, we had the hope of forming associations so that farmers could move forward within legality. We wanted—and we have achieved it—to establish an important production center that today has more than 500 members, 100 of us signatories of the Peace Agreement.”
Chaparro recalls that his municipality in Meta was one of the most “punished by the conflict,” after the first attempt at peace talks with the government was launched in 1984, known as the “Casa Verde Talks,” which ended in failure. Proudly, he highlights his and his colleagues’ commitment to the peace process and the signed Agreement, emphasizing that it “saved many lives.”
From pod to chocolate: the artisanal journey showcased by Chocoshow in Colombia
The journey of cacao from the pod to the final product combines tradition and technique. It begins with hand harvesting: the ripe pods are opened in the field and the beans are extracted, then fermented for several days in boxes or heaps to develop their flavor profiles. After fermentation, the beans are dried in the sun or in controlled dryers until they reach the proper moisture level.
The beans can be sold dry for export or for local processing. In artisanal production, the beans are roasted to deepen their aromas, ground to obtain the cacao mass, and from there the butter and solids are separated depending on the desired product.
In small chocolate workshops, conching and tempering times are adjusted to achieve fine textures and defined flavors; this manual, small-scale work is what now draws the public to the tasting areas at the fair. (Industry and technical sources describe each stage and highlight the importance of fermentation and roasting in the final chocolate profile.)
In recent years, Colombian cacao production has shown steady growth. Data from the industry association and the National Cacao Fund reported that in 2024 production reached nearly 67,678 tons that paid the development levy, with aggregate figures pointing to a production level above 73,000 tons when additional records are included.
At the same time, exports of cacao and its derivatives have shown notable momentum, with values reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars in 2024, driven both by cacao beans and by processed products such as butter and specialty chocolates. These numbers have positioned cacao as a product with real potential in international markets and with a value-added profile that small producers and chocolate SMEs are seeking to consolidate at fairs like Chocoshow.
The artisanal, high-quality edge that is propelling Colombian cacao onto the world stage
The growth of production goes hand in hand with many constraints. Genetic improvement, crop health, drying and storage logistics, and access to financing remain bottlenecks for many small-scale producers. In addition, building sustainable markets requires traceability and certifications that are not always within reach for rural associations.
The fair functions as a showcase for forging alliances: buyers seeking fine cacao and chocolatiers interested in origin-profile batches meet associations that need contracts and technical support. For cacao to become a real and lasting alternative in post-conflict areas, those connections must translate into fair prices, continuous training, and stable marketing chains.
Part of the appeal of Colombian cacao lies in its diversity of regional flavors and in the possibility of offering single-origin chocolates that tell the story of a village or a farm. The appreciation of these profiles by local and international consumers has expanded market niches for small batches and for community projects that transform the bean into chocolate with identity.
At Chocoshow, that synergy is visible: emerging brands offering bars with traceability, women-producer projects marketing preserves or truffles, and artisan chocolatiers seeking to strengthen relationships with gourmet shops and exporters.
Chocoshow is not just an exhibition; it is a record of change in the Colombian countryside. Among chocolate bars and business conversations, much of the effort to make cacao a tool for rural development, dignity, and memory is at play. In the aisles of the fair, this fruit, which was little known to many just a few years ago in the country’s cafés, is becoming the protagonist of a story that, for the first time in a long time, symbolizes a future of progress, hope, and rural development in Colombia.