Shea Butter A Guide to Production and Marketing - AGOA Export ...

Peace Corps Ghana Version 1, March 2008
6. Stories from the Field
Shea Butter Extractor’s Women’s Group: Lessons Learned
One of my counterparts and I propositioned a private company (we’ll call it ABC
Company) about providing them with high quality shea butter for export to U.S. and
European markets. The owners of the company were out of the country and the
company was in a crunch to fulfill an order. The field assistant agreed to meet with us
about the possibilities of working together. We let the representative know that we
had 30 women ready to make shea butter under their strict quality control guidelines
and within the timeframe needed. The company agreed to test the women’s ability
and quality of butter with a 2,000 kilogram order (that’s 2 tons or 4,000lbs) at a preset
price. The women would get half of the money up front and then the rest upon
delivery. The company would provide packaging and pick up the butter from the
village. My counterpart and I figured the costs of production and profit desired and
decided the price the company was willing to pay was worth it.
Everyone seemed happy. The women were especially excited to be a part of a group
(this is an understatement – they were thrilled!). The women were now the Kalpohin
Shea Butter Extractors Association! More importantly, to them, they could tell other
women of their village of 5,000 that they belonged to something. They were so
proud. Note to self – It was time to set expectations to the group that this is a new
venture and we must proceed carefully and with much caution. Who could know if
this was something that would continue? Constant communication would prove to be
key.
As a requirement from the company, my counterpart set up a bank account for the
newly formed women’s group. The bank in turn required GH¢200 to get the account
up and we used the women’s own money. The account was necessary for
transparency purposes for the company and made good sense to the group so they
could easily receive and keep track of monies received and earned. My counterpart
would act as the accountant, manager, and liaison between the group and any outside
buyers for the women since none of the women spoke English.
Once the money was received from ABC Company, the women went right to work.
This was where problems started. Not until after the money was received and the
women were well in to production was the group informed that they needed to
provide their own scale to weigh the butter for packaging. My counterpart tried for
two weeks to find a scale and when he did, the women were nearly done making the
butter. The women even used their own money to buy more nuts to cover the total
amount needed to complete the order. I was unaware they spent their own money to
complete the order, but was impressed at their eagerness to finish the product in the
timeframe requested by the buyer.
Once the scale was in place my counterpart and the women began weighing and
packaging the butter. Everything seemed on track until the ABC Company sent one
of their field assistants out to check the status of the order. When they weighed the
order, it was below the required amount by 25%! We concluded that the scale that the
villagers used was faulty. The second blow was that the women spent all the money
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