It is estimated that 80% of child labor in Colombia occurs in the informal sector which includes agriculture. Significant incidences of child labor occurred in coca production and because coca is expanding in the race to obtain more for a land-value swap, its relevance to cocoa production is significant. Agriculture is listed as one of the worst forms of child labor and 71.1% of child laborers in rural Colombia work in agriculture, fishing, cattle farming, hunting, and forestry. Almost half of these reported children did not receive payments. Children are reported to have been trafficked specifically for agricultural labor. Cocoa was not specifically listed as a direct means for these purposes.,

Cocoa production area in Colombia has risen dramatically, over 117%, in the decade from 2004 to 2014. Area harvested reached over 160,000 hectares and the country’s output was estimated at nearly 48,000 tons, in 2014. Deforestation in Colombia has risen 44% from 2015 to 2016, losing over 178,000 hectares of forest predominantly in the Amazon. While this is mainly driven by coca production (not to be confused with cocoa) and road infrastructure, other large-scale agriculture is also to blame. Reports about a peace accord from the Colombian government intends to eradicate Coca by replacing it with crops like Cocoa, Maize, and Plantains. The idea is to lessen the effect of the drug trade as a staple in the Colombian economy but instead, local farmers are planting more coca in hope that they will get generate more income when payouts for the subsidy occurs. So while cocoa expansion is not directly causing a push in to undeveloped areas, it is indirectly altering landscapes in which it is thought to be grown in the future.