1. Shea Butter Production as an Income Generating Activity for
Women in Rural Africa: Solving the “Paradox of paradoxa”
Dr. Julia Bello-Bravo
Dr. Peter Lovett

3. • The shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa ssp.
Paradoxa) populates 21 sub-Saharan African
countries, around 3.7 million square km of
semi-arid zone of the sub-Saharan African
Savannah
http://beadforlife.org/blog/beadforlife-shea-nilotica/

4. • The shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa ssp.
Paradoxa) populates 21 sub-Saharan African
countries, around 3.7 million km of semi-arid
zone of the sub-Saharan African Savannah
• It is under the domain of women (4 million +
women harvest export crop)
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/after-fair-trade-coffee-fair-trade-shea/?_r=0

5. • The shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa ssp.
Paradoxa) populates 21 sub-Saharan African
countries, around 3.7 million km of semi-arid
zone of the sub-Saharan African Savannah
• It is under the domain of women (4 million +
women harvest export crop)
• It also provides an ingredient to the multibillion dollar cosmetics and confectionary
market
http://www.watradehub.com/products/shea
http://www.paradisecosmetics.com/Bakery/Bakery_Ingredients-olive-butter.htm

6. • Yet paradoxically, in terms of international
trade the women collectors are invisible and
disconnected from global supply chain
Courtesy of the Global Shea Alliance (2012)

7. What is the “Paradox of paradoxa”
(Stedman & Lovett, 2010)?

8. What is the “Paradox of paradoxa”
(Stedman & Lovett, 2010)?
• The majority of global [western] knowledge
associates shea butter as being handmade
and bought, at fair prices, from African village
women before use in luxury cosmetics.

9. What is the “Paradox of paradoxa”
(Stedman & Lovett, 2010)?
• The majority of global [western] knowledge
associates shea butter as being handmade
and bought, as fair prices, from African village
women before use in luxury cosmetics.
• Whereas, in reality more than 90% of all
shea destined for foreign markets is locally
traded from the villages simply as low
quality shea kernels that go to industrial
processing plants.

10. Paradox of paradoxa
For those consumers aware of shea, it has been
estimated that approximately 90% think their
shea butter is hand crafted
However…
90% of actual international trade in nuts
…whether in chocolate or body butters…
are processed in an industrial manner

11. What this means?
• Millions upon millions of women collectors
have
no visibility,
no voice,
no information, and
no opportunity to change what they need to do to
increase their income or, to influence the shea
value chain in any shape or form
• These women are completely disconnected
and dis-empowered from the shea industry

12. Background Information on Shea
• Shea harvesting, processing, extraction
and commercialization are still exclusively
a female activity
• Participation of women in increasing the
value of their shea products for the
international shea value chain has the
potential to help them increase their
incomes

13. Background Information on Shea
• Women’s income from shea stored kernels
and shea butter is used to buy other goods
for their livelihood and to invest in their
children’s schooling
• Female contribution to household income
– empowers women
– giving them more influence and preferences over
expenditures.

14. From Local to International
Requirements in the Shea Trade
• Over the past decade there has been an
increasing demand for shea in the
international marketplace
– For use in cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs),
in chocolates produced in Europe,
• Typical 100g bar of milk-chocolate contains 5%
non-cocoa fats
• 20% of these fats are shea stearin (1% of bar)
– For use in cosmetics

17. Shea as a Commodity
• Shea is an attractive commodity for the
international markets in Europe, U.S. and
Japan

18. Shea as a Commodity
• Shea is an attractive commodity for the
international markets in Europe, U.S. and
Japan
• African women could have the opportunity to
participate in the commercialization of shea in
the international marketplace and obtain
higher prices for their product and labor

19. Shea as a Commodity
• Shea is an attractive commodity for the
international markets in Europe, U.S. and
Japan
• African women could have the opportunity to
participate in the commercialization of shea in
the international marketplace and obtain
higher prices for their product and labor
• Need to understand the demands of
international marketplace
– But it is still a challenge due to some bottlenecks
in the beginning of the value chain.

20. Women and Shea
• In the case of shea, women participate in the
market by selling the raw shea nuts or the
processed shea butter.

21. Women and Shea
• In the case of shea, women participate in the
market by selling the raw shea nuts or the
processed shea butter.
• Some very poor women need to sell the
kernels right after harvesting at low prices in
order to buy what is necessary for the
agriculture season.

22. Women and Shea
• In the case of shea, women participate in the
market by selling the raw shea nuts or the
processed shea butter.
• Some very poor women need to sell the
kernels right after harvesting at low prices in
order to buy what is necessary for the
agriculture season.
• Other women stored the nuts and process at a
later time.

23. Shea Nuts

25. International Versus Local Shea
Markets
• Women often understand the needs of the
local market for the processing of the shea
nuts very well
• However, international demands requires
– different quality
– higher standards
– more consistent products
– different demands as compared to the local
marketplace

26. Shea Cream for the Local Market

27. Problems
• If and when women do not have access to the
information that will allow them to produce a
product that is consistent with the needs of the
international marketplace
– The result is that women cannot compete and have access to a
fair price for their skills and labor
• Moreover, women who work in rural areas
have little or no access to information that
could benefit them
– As to produce products of greater value early in the value chain
– Allow them to work collectively to capture more value in steps
further on in the value chain

28. Knowledge and the Shea Market
• However, women need information about
best practices for storage if they are not going
to process the nuts right away
• They also need information about the fair
price to sell
– the kernels
– the processed shea butter in the local markets
– internationally to the traders
• In any case, women need access to
information and educational materials about
better practices that can have a positive
impact on the first steps of the value chain

29. International Markets Bring New
Demands
• In the international marketplace,
there are three factors that can
reduce the value of shea butter for
those that use this material in
food and cosmetics:
(1) high levels of free fatty acids (FFA)
(2) aromatic hydrocarbons in the shea
(3) high levels of peroxides

30. R4D – A New
Technique for High
Quality Shea
• This approach results in
(1) low levels of free fatty acids
(FFA)
(2) no aromatic hydrocarbons
(3) low levels of peroxides

31. How can this
innovation be made
available to
women?
– Very new technique
– Many women are low literate
learners
– Many languages
– Printing and distribution of
posters in many languages will
be costly – where will the
money come from?
– Even this poster was displayed
in a village where few women
spoke English
– Will this be one more technique
that will be inaccessible the
target audience?

32. Meeting International Demands:
Education as a Starting Point
• Educating women in an improved processing
technique becomes a logical step in the value
chain
• Education can potentially result in increased
income for those at the beginning of a value
chain
• Increase the available high quality starting
materials for those organizations that exists
later in the value chains

33. How?
• How to provide useful information and
knowledge to women…
who live across 21 different countries,
who speak divergent languages,
are often low literate learners,
many of them live in villages,
…in this improved technique?

34. Identifying the Bottlenecks
• The first critical bottleneck in the value chain occurs in
the storage of dry kernels or in the process of shea
butter
– Properly stored shea nuts more desirable in the local and
international marketplace
• Even if women stored and processed the nuts properly
there is still some gaps that requires access to
information
– the demands of the standard quality international market
– not following these standards the price is likely to be lower
for women labor and skills

35. Identifying the Bottlenecks
• The first critical bottleneck in the value chain occurs in
the storage of dry kernels or in the process of shea
butter
– Properly stored shea nuts are more desirable in the local and
international marketplace
• Even if women stored and processed the nuts properly
there is still some gaps that requires access to
information
– the demands of the standard quality international market
– not following these standards the price is likely to be lower
for women labor and skills

36. Identifying the Bottlenecks
• The first critical bottleneck in the value chain occurs in
the storage of dry kernels or in the process of shea
butter
– Properly stored shea nuts are more desirable in the local and
international marketplace
• Even if women stored and processed the nuts properly
there is still some gaps that requires access to
information
– the demands of the standard quality international market
– not following these standards the price is likely to be lower
for women labor and skills

37. Identifying the Bottlenecks
• The first critical bottleneck in the value chain occurs in
the storage of dry kernels or in the process of shea
butter
– Properly stored shea nuts are more desirable in the local and
international marketplace
• Even if women stored and processed the nuts properly
there is still some gaps that requires access to
information
– the demands of the standard quality in the international
market
– not following these standards the price is likely to be lower
for women labor and skills

38. Solutions: Use of ICT in Enabling
Empowerment of Women in a Value Chain
• Scientific Animations Without Borders
(SAWBO) has developed approaches to try to
alleviate this problem of taking R4D
innovations into the field in a cost effective
manner
– in local languages
– without the need for literacy
– these animations can be deployed on video
capable devices by in country groups.

39. Scientific Animations Without
Borders (SAWBO)
• Diversity of content
• Numerous languages
• Many different collaborative
groups
• Materials are easily
downloaded
• Can be used by many
different educational groups
• Partnerships with on the
ground groups

40. Dr. Peter Lovett
• Expert in Shea in West
Africa
• Part of the Global Shea
Alliance
• Consultant for USAID
funded West Africa Trade
Hub
• Approached SAWBO to
create a Shea video on this
new innovation
• He saw the potential value
of SAWBO videos in
educational steps in the
value chain of shea

41. Video
completed in
mid-September
of 2013
For release in
fall of 2013

42. New Version of Video – Next Steps?
Next steps
– Place the video into new language variants
– Test the impact of women on learning the new
process
– Do women adopt this new approach?

43. Other Solutions
• One opportunity for women is to organize
themselves in cooperatives
– to buy and share technology
– that could facilitate access to international markets
– higher prices for the final product
• Associations and cooperatives would allow them
to have better access to credit and training
• Lastly, women organized in cooperatives will have
better access to market information that would
link them with international markets

44. Why?
• Potential higher incomes, e.g.
– School fees paid
– Improved family nutrition
– Better housing

45. Thank you