Colombian farmers are being encouraged to grow cocoa for a new premium chocolate bar in place of illicit drugs.

A new initiative between the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Colombian and Australian Governments, and fair trade chocolatier, Zotter, aims to help farmers earn in the Chocó region of Colombia who rely on illicit drug crops to earn greater incomes through growing cacao.

The project is part of a wider UN-backed Colombian Government program known as ‘Montebravo’ which was set up to help reduce the economic dependence of farmers on coca leaf production.

Montebravo brings together farmers associations to manage cacao production as well as engaging them in agroforestry, sustainable forest management and forest timber harvesting.

Read the press release on Noodls: UN-backed project to help Colombian farmers move away from illicit crops towards fair trade chocolate