The shea market: manufacturers and middle (wo)men

This month I’ve been writing about the shea market and have introduced you to the shea nut collectors and the shea butter processors.

So what happens next?

Shea butter is traditionally used throughout Africa for “frying, adding to sauces, as a skin pomade [moisturiser], for medicinal applications, to make soap, for lanterns and for cultural purposes at ceremonies (births, weddings and funerals).” (Global Shea Alliance website)

Shea nuts and butter are also exported and around 90%-95% of shea used abroad is for food manufacturing, mostly for chocolate (it has the same melting point as cocoa butter), confectionary and margarine, much of it in the US market. However, the shea nuts are generally processed into refined shea butter in factories abroad rather than in Africa.

The use of shea butter in cosmetics and personal care items is growing and accounts for around 5-10% of shea exported from Africa. Shea butter is known to have therapeutic properties and it can heal and moisturise skin and reduce wrinkles due to its high level of antioxidants (especially in organic, unrefined shea butter). The local people have been using it for years and almost all West Africans will have used it at some point in their lives, particularly during the dry Harmattan period when people suffer from cracked lips and heels.

The Body Shop’s Anita Roddick discovered the amazing benefits of shea butter when she travelled to Ghana and the Body Shop has been trading with a community not far from Tamale for years now. L’Occitane also has a shea butter operation in Burkina Faso. Both companies are recognised for helping to develop the communities they work with and the Body Shop’s way of operating set the  standards now used by the Fairtrade foundation.

However, this isn’t always the case. It’s great that shea butter is reaching such large audiences through cosmetics and food but the majority of the industry it is not actively helping the people at the bottom of the chain who are generally very poor.

The middle (wo)men traders benefit from buying the raw shea nuts cheaply in places like Ghana and then sell to customers abroad. The manufacturers buy the nuts from the traders and then add further value by processing it into shea butter using machines. They might manufacture the end product themselves or sell the butter to another manufacturing company.

So the middle (wo)men and manufacturers do business, make lots of profit and benefit from the market opportunities available outside Africa. However, this doesn’t really improve the lives of the shea collectors and processors. Do you remember Mma Fati and Mma Sana?

Thankfully, organisations like the Global Shea Alliance (GSA) recognise this. GSA’s  initiatives include improvement of quality standards (to grow the international market for African shea butter), sustainability programmes to protect natural resources and improve collecting and storage, and training/support for rural shea collectors. I went to their conference in Abidjan in March this year (see previous post and photo below).

The company I’m working with is an executive member of GSA and is involved in all stages of the market. It is adding value to the shea nuts in Ghana so that people here can benefit.

SeKaf Ghana buys nuts and adds a premium so that the shea nut collectors get more money per bowl of nuts than they would at market. They also train the shea nut collectors to ensure that their nuts are the best quality and are not rejected.

The company provides space and resources for the local women to process shea butter on site and also trains them to ensure that the butter is premium quality. The women are paid per 25kg box of finished and packaged shea butter and ways of increasing production are being researched. The more the women produce, the more they get paid.

The company sells the raw, unrefined, organic shea butter (perfect for cosmetics) to buyers and manufacturers abroad but also makes shea butter cosmetics itself (the TAMA range that I’ve talked about many times!).

By processing shea butter and making natural cosmetics within Ghana, SeKaf is providing jobs, a guaranteed market for the women, fair prices and high quality standards for export. I’ve also assisted the company to set up savings and loans schemes with a couple of the women’s groups. As a result of all this, the people at the bottom of the chain benefit and the profit stays in Ghana.

So, as a shea butter consumer, it’s good to know whether the shea butter moisturiser or tasty chocolate you’re enjoying is helping people like Mma Fati and Mma Sana out of poverty or keeping them in it.

In the next post I’ll talk about the end customer, what they are actually getting out of the shea market and what sorts of questions they should be asking.

The shea market: shea butter processors

This month, I’m blogging about the shea market and asking a few questions: What is the shea market? Who are the people involved? How do they benefit?

My last post was about the women who collect the raw material (the shea nuts). Today, it’s all about the women who process the nuts into shea butter. Sometimes, these are the same women but I’d like to use the example of the Kasalgu Women’s Cooperative whose members process shea butter full-time at the SeKaf Shea Butter Village.

To make shea butter you need to sort, roast and grind the shea nuts.

The dark brown, chocolate-like paste created from grinding is then kneaded to separate the fat from the rest of the nut. The women knead, add water, knead again and add water to transform the dark brown paste into a pale yellow butter. Even though there is a kneading machine, the women knead the vast majority of the shea butter by hand in big bowls which is a very physical job and builds a lot of muscle in the arms!

This is then melted into oil to remove any impurities then cooled and packaged.

The women use firewood to roast the nuts and heat the butter. Not only is this a natural resource but the fire also creates lots of smoke and I know a couple of women who have had to stop work because of respiratory problems.

Other challenges for shea butter processors are the ability to invest in the machinery and raw materials required, producing high quality shea butter to sell beyond the local market and finding customers for the shea butter.

The Kasalgu Cooperative is therefore unusual in that SeKaf is their guaranteed customer and the women are trained in best practice processing to get maximum yield and the best quality shea butter. They are also given a space at SeKaf Shea Butter Village and provided with shea nuts, water, firewood, a milling and crushing service, a kneading machine, roasters, bowls and packaging materials.

Some research is being carried out at SeKaf into the problem of firewood consumption and resulting smoke and carbon emissions as well as the possibility of generating biogas from the waste shea cake (the organic by product of shea butter processing).

Obviously, the majority of shea butter processing groups don’t benefit from ready-made solutions to their problems like this so they can struggle to make a profitable business out of shea butter.

To understand what regular employment means to the Kasalgu Women’s Cooperative shea butter processors, I spoke to Mma (mother) Sana who has been Magaazier (women’s leader) for the last six years.

How does the relationship with SeKaf Ghana Ltd help the women of the Kasalgu Cooperative?

As we are working as a cooperative we are able to save some money and pay our daughters’ school fees. We want to be able to open a bank account so that we can be saving money to help us in the future.

How has this personally benefitted you?

As I am Magaazier, I am very proud and the family is proud. I am happy. My husband died so I am responsible for looking after the whole family. But my life is improving and my daughter can witness this. She says SeKaf is handling me well.

SeKaf’s VSO Volunteer has enabled the Kasalgu Women’s Cooperative to set up a community saving and loans scheme, how will this help you in the future?

It is very useful and helps us a lot. Now we know how to save, we are happy. I will use that money to look for accommodation for my children, so they don’t have to pay rent.

What do you want TAMA shea butter cosmetics customers to know about the shea butter used in the products?

I want customers to look at the packaging and know who made the shea butter in there. We need to make sure they know that there is shea butter in there, where it came from and who made it. We are praying for the company to continue to be successful as it is making a difference to us. We like to work hard and see the benefits.

Next time I’ll be blogging about the middle (wo)men, the people who get the shea nuts and shea butter from the women to bigger markets.