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

Peace Corps Ghana Version 1, March 2008
Table of Contents
1: The Biology of Shea ..................................................................................................4
Where do Shea trees live?..........................................................................................4
Life Cycle...................................................................................................................4
Cultivation and Transplantation.................................................................................5
How to Make Shea Butter..........................................................................................5
A Little Shea Chemistry.............................................................................................6
2: Uses of Shea..............................................................................................................7
Traditional Products7
Other Traditional Uses of Shea butter .......................................................................7
Traditional Non-Butter Uses......................................................................................8
Industrial Uses ...........................................................................................................9
3: The Shea Market......................................................................................................10
4: The Shea Value Chain .............................................................................................11
5: Working at the Producer Level................................................................................12
Group Dynamics ......................................................................................................12
Roles Within a Group ..............................................................................................13
Identifying Your Market..........................................................................................13
Processing Equipment & Machinery .......................................................................14
Cooperative Registration .........................................................................................14
6. Stories from the Field..............................................................................................16
Shea Butter Extractor’s Women’s Group: Lessons Learned ...................................16
AN EXAMPLE OF COSTING ...............................................................................19
Break-Even Analysis from a UNDP study based near Tamale ...............................20
7: Supporting Actors in the Shea Industry/Contacts....................................................21
NGOs and Companies Involved in the Ghanaian Shea Industry.............................21
Major International Companies in the Shea Industry: .............................................21
Local Buyers in Ghana (Nuts & Butter) ..................................................................21
8. Appendices..............................................................................................................23
Appendix 1. Value-added to selling price of shea butter cosmetics.......................24
Appendix 2. Ghana Shea SS MAP (from SNV Ghana)..........................................25
Appendix 3. Traditional Shea Processing (adapted from Dr. Peter Lovett). ..........26
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