Askinosie Chocolate is a bean-to-bar maker in Springfield, Missouri, that buys cacao directly from farmers in Tanzania, the Philippines and Ecuador and shares a portion of its profits with them.
Its transparency report says its contract price plus profit share averages 59% more than the comparable farm gate price, and that it has shared more than $175,000 in profits with farmers as of October 2025.
Askinosie Chocolate shares a portion of its profits with the farmers who grow its cacao, and it publishes the numbers. Its own story is told with a wink. A father quits a successful law practice, falls in love with making chocolate from scratch, and puts his life savings into one of the first craft chocolate companies in the US. His daughter thinks he may have lost his mind, works beside him part-time through university, and then joins for good. Shawn Askinosie is the founder and CEO. Lawren Askinosie is the CMO, and her focus is women cacao farmers and the girls in their communities.
| Measure | As Askinosie reports it |
|---|---|
| Contract price plus profit share against comparable farm gate price | 59% higher on average |
| Average paid above world market price, past 16 years | 54% |
| Average paid above Fair Trade price, past 16 years | 43% |
| Profits shared with farmers, as of October 2025 | More than $175,000 |
| Paid to farmers since 2006, beans plus profit shares | Over $2,400,000 |
What direct trade means at Askinosie
Direct trade is used loosely across the industry, so it helps to see one company spell it out. Askinosie's direct trade page says the farmers follow its own detailed specifications, including for fermentation and drying, which it calls the two steps with the greatest effect on flavor. It can reject defective beans at the farm. It chooses the sacks the beans travel in, because airflow and moisture change flavor. And it is its own importer, which it says is almost unheard of in chocolate, so the beans cannot be mixed with anyone else's on the way to a warehouse 50 feet from the factory.
Every bar is traceable to named farmers. In Ecuador that has meant a single farmer, Vitaliano Sarabia. In Tanzania it is a small cooperative. At the end of each selling cycle, which is also when the next crop is ready to inspect, Askinosie visits and pays the profit share directly, in cash, sometimes helping farmers open their first bank accounts. It shares its financial statements with the farmers in their own language and walks through how the profit share was calculated. The idea is simple. Better beans sell more bars, and more bars mean a larger share.
Mababu, Tanzania
Shawn first visited Tanzania in 2010. The Mababu page explains that Askinosie worked with a woman-led farmer group in Tenende until early 2014, and now works with a group in Mababu, about ten miles away, led by Mama Mpoki. The farmers grow Trinitario cacao in the Kyela district. Askinosie describes the roasted beans as fruity, with notes of strawberry and blueberry, and says they make the creamiest chocolate it produces. The bar has won five international awards, including a 2020 Silver from the Academy of Chocolate.
The 72% Mababu bar shows how a maker can use cocoa butter without hiding the origin. Askinosie presses its own butter in the factory from the same beans, so the bar is 69% cocoa liquor and 3% cocoa butter, both from Mababu, plus 28% organic cane sugar. That is the whole list. Plenty of makers buy deodorized cocoa butter instead, as Goodnow Farms explains, so a maker pressing its own is a detail worth noticing on a label.
Davao and the school lunch programs
Askinosie went to Davao in the Philippines in 2008 during a worldwide bean shortage and met farmer Peter Cruz. The Davao page says Askinosie became the first maker to create and export a single-origin bar with Davao beans since the mid-1980s. In both Davao and Tanzania it built school lunch programs with local parent groups, selling a product the school community made, a traditional tablea cocoa in Davao and Kyela rice in Tanzania, and returning all of the profits to feed students. Askinosie also runs Chocolate University, which takes high school students from Southwest Missouri to meet the farmers in person.
Where to find it
The 72% Mababu, Tanzania bar is on Askinosie's site, and the full transparency report lists every contract since the company began. The factory on Commercial Street in Springfield offers tours.
Questions
Is Askinosie Chocolate direct trade?
Yes. Askinosie buys from farmer groups it knows by name, acts as its own importer, and pays above the Fair Trade price. It then returns a share of profits to the farmers, paid in person at origin.
How much does Askinosie pay cacao farmers?
Its transparency report says the contract price plus profit share averages 59% more than the comparable farm gate price, and that over 16 years it paid on average 54% above the world market price and 43% above the Fair Trade price.
Where is Askinosie Chocolate made?
In a small factory on Commercial Street in Springfield, Missouri, which offers tours.
What is in the Askinosie 72% Mababu bar?
Cocoa liquor and cocoa butter pressed in Askinosie's own factory from Mababu, Tanzania beans, plus organic cane sugar. The cacao is 69% liquor and 3% butter, and sugar is the other 28%.
Who runs Askinosie Chocolate?
Shawn Askinosie is the founder and CEO, and his daughter Lawren Askinosie is the chief marketing officer. Lawren's work focuses on women cacao farmers and girls in those communities.
