This Colombian chocolate producer promotes human rights and biodiversity by tracking cocoa
Luker Chocolate uses advanced tracing methods to document the sources of its cocoa and improve the social and environmental effects of its primary raw material. Read More

Cocoa production has long been linked to forced labor, child labor, deforestation, biodiversity loss and other damaging consequences. These issues are most pronounced in the world’s top two cocoa producing countries, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, which account for a combined 57 percent of global production.
It’s possible to responsibly source cocoa, but separating good beans from bad is not so easy.
That’s the challenge taken on by Luker Chocolate, a family-owned company headquartered in Colombia. The 118-year-old company is using advanced tracing methods to document the sources of its cocoa and improve the social and environmental effects of its primary raw material.
“You need to know where something is coming from to fully understand the risks associated with it,” said Matthias Lange, executive director of the International Cocoa Initiative. “While traceability itself won’t solve these risks, it is a necessary step before other activities can be put in place to tackle them.”
Dark chocolate
Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, in West Africa, account for about 3.7 million tons of annual cocoa production, according to the World Population Review, as well as the worst social and environmental harms associated with cocoa production.
The pay for cocoa farmers in West Africa is very low; around $1 per day with female workers making significantly less.
Cocoa farming replaced about 5 million acres of forest land worldwide from 2001 to 2015, an area similar in size to the state of New Jersey.
You can’t fix what you can’t find
The 2023 Food & Beverage benchmark, published by the London-based Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, found that the majority of food and beverage companies don’t know the country of origin of their commodities.
Knowing the country your commodities come from is a good start, but it still isn’t enough.
“It could be that from one farm to the next, one is ethically sourced, and the next one is truly abusive,” said Oana Branzei, professor of strategy and sustainability at Western University in Canada.
The World Cocoa Foundation, along with other organizations such as the International Cocoa Organization and the International Cocoa Initiative, strengthen stakeholder collaboration and promote best practices for responsible sourcing.
Smallholder rights
Founded in 1906 in Manizales, Colombia, Luker Chocolate buys approximately 30 percent of Colombia’s total cocoa harvest (about 21,000 tons) from approximately 15,000 smallholder farmers across Colombia. There are very few large cocoa farms in Colombia and the majority of production comes from the country’s 65,000 farmers, who have an average of 9.8 acres of land and use artisanal farming methods.
Producing 68,500 tons a year, Colombia accounts for 1 percent of global cocoa production.
Luker produces finished chocolate products at its manufacturing plants in Bogotá and Slovakia. Chocolate is sold as an ingredient and as a finished product to manufacturers and brands across 40 countries worldwide. Its top markets are the United States, the United Kingdom and Colombia.
Now in its sixth generation of family ownership, the company, headed by CEO Camilo Romero, overhauled its organizational structure in 2023, placing the sustainability and cocoa sourcing teams under VP Julia Ocampo.
Luker traces its source farms by GPS coordinates that digitally map each farm to monitor deforestation. Additionally, all bags of cocoa destined for EU markets are marked and fully traceable. The company is working to expand this capability for cocoa destined for the U.S. and other markets.

Most of Colombia’s cocoa farmers are smallholders who use traditional methods. Source: Luker Chocolates
New regulations
Ensuring that supply chains are free from deforestation and human rights abuses is soon to become mandatory.
The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires businesses to ensure that their supply chains are not contributing to deforestation, with reporting to begin in 2026. And the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) requires European companies to identify and address human rights risks in their supply chains, starting in 2027.
Luker’s tracing capabilities already fulfill the EUDR legislation, Ocampo said.
Tracing challenges
“Tracing cocoa to its origin faces multiple challenges, including data inconsistencies, varying methodologies and the complexity of smallholder supply chains,” said Michael Matarasso, impact director and head of North America at the World Cocoa Foundation. “Field-level data collection is costly and difficult, and implementing scalable, best practice processes is essential to prevent supply chain mixing.”
One challenge is the confluence of major cocoa supply chains.
“All of the big brands are sourcing from a supply chain that is very concentrated at multiple links in the chain, such that the raw cocoa beans become indistinguishable from each other,” Branzei said.
Luker addresses this by going directly to growers and the regional cocoa farmer associations. That can be arduous: Long distances and the lack of roads and infrastructure in rural areas make it difficult to reach all of their growers.
“Sometimes we have to walk, take boats, or ride horses to reach our farmers,” Ocampo said.
Supporting farmers = good business
Luker’s commitments include increasing the earnings of its growers, providing social benefits, such as education, to the farm communities and protecting the environment from deforestation and biodiversity loss. Its approach is detailed in its sustainability program, called The Chocolate Dream.
Luker declined to provide exact figures on how much those initiatives impact the final price of its products. The company invests around 5 percent of its earnings in meeting its sustainability goals and commitments – an investment that is quadrupled by partners such as NGOs, clients and universities.
“The largest impact on cost comes from our commitment to purchase cocoa for at least 90 percent of international market prices,” said Ocampo.
The reference price for cocoa is based on the New York cocoa futures price, which was around $10,600 in early January.
Luker’s sustainable approach is an important factor for chocolate brands facing upcoming supply chain requirements on deforestation and human rights.
“This is very important because you can grow cocoa trees more efficiently if you don’t look after the rhythms of nature, but you can only grow it sustainably if you do,” Branzei said.
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