Our shea butter and Black soap come from a group of co-operative producers in Ghana, West Africa. The groups are organized as co-operatives, producer associations, family groups, and clan groups, which provide healthy alternatives to large, scale multi national or international manufacturing companies. Membership in most of the groups are women with few men .In all the groups; women represent about 80% of active members.

All the groups come from deprived communities where there is lot of unemployment; living standards are low with high poverty rate. Majority of people in this area live on less than a dollar per day. They also live on subsistence farming with unreliable rainfall and the women are those engaged in shea butter processing and basket weaving to earn their living. Women own land and produce cereals-millet, corn groundnuts, sorghum etc - once in a year most times is disappointing owing to poor rain fall pattern. They also own animals such goats, sheep and cattle. Shea Butter processing and basket weaving therefore are major income earners for them especially in the dry season when there is few farm activities. Their income from shea butter is not that regular even though they can produce in reasonable quantities owing to lack of regular /ready market/orders.

They only produce on large scale whenever we have orders and pre-finance them. Shea Butter processing is very important to these women groups because income from it helps to greatly take care of their basic needs like shelter, medical, education of their children, social and other related needs. Most of the members in the groups are women about 80%.

The special situation of these groups is that there is high level of rural unemployment, poverty and illiteracy, with most men moving to the cities and leaving women and children in the villages in search of jobs. Most of these women therefore become single mothers, some widows. These combined with the fragile agro-ecological environment make their contribution a crucial element in the survival of the rural populations. About 80% of these women are responsible for the upkeep of their families.

Yes there are special social projects, which benefit members. Even though shea butter processing has been handed
down from generation to generation for thousands of years, there is still urgent need for the training for these women to acquire the functional aptitudes of literacy, business management, money management, better methods of shea production, sustainable environmental practices and good medical/health practices. We therefore twice very year organize
seminars/workshops to educate/train them when we have some funds. Literacy classes are also held for the majority illiterate women from time to time. We hope in the future to be able to solicit for funds from the local authorities for craft centres and school blocks and clinics to be build for their communities. Men and women are paid equal for their products.

A fair price to the producers is a price that affords them the means to be able to live meaningful lives; a price that is competitive and yet they are able to buy raw materials, provide for their needs and still have a portion they can save. This is achieved by the elimination of exploitative middlemen. The price is fixed in consultation with all elected representatives. The calculations are done in consideration of total cost of production; the export price and that of the local market ruling
prices and then mark up which is always between 15-20% depending on the export price. Shea butter is naturally organic because the trees grow in the wild/forest and not controlled by humans. No chemicals are sprayed on them and most the areas that shea trees grow, farming does not take place there. Nothing is also added during processing apart from
fresh water. It can therefore be said that shea butter is organic by default.

Shea butter does not have much demand in Ghana generally. It is used by a few cosmetics manufacturing companies. Also people in other parts of Ghana apart from the Northern part ignorantly consider shea butter to be of inferior quality as compared with other imported oils. It is therefore mostly consumed in the North where it is used for cooking, pomades and hair creams.
Domestic consumption is estimated to be 50%, general exports at 40% and fair trade 10%. Shea butter is mostly processed using the traditional method, which have been in operation since time of our ancestors. Besides, most of the women
groups are not in a position to acquire the machine because of lack of financial support.

The traditional method involves:

• boiling of the nuts,
• sun drying the nuts,
• crushing of the nuts to have the kernels,
• crushing of kernel,
• roasting, grinding of crushed kernel to paste,
• kneading paste into cream
• and finally the cream is boiled and the oil separated from the residue.

The second method is semi mechanical where machines like crushes, millers and kneaders are used, but the
separation and boiling is done manually.

The third is completely mechanical where a shea butter processing plant is used.

We do not cultivate the shea trees. They grow wild with nuts falling off the trees when ripe. The nuts are hand picked by the women. Apart from the few trees that are on peoples farmlands, no one controls/owns the trees.

Another major problem of the women is transporting the nuts from the forest/bush to the villages. They carry them on their heads. We hope that in future we would be able to provide them donkey carts to solve this problem. Even though the women undergo training in quality shea butter processing, a team of quality control experts do supervise their work during processing from time to time in order to maintain our grade A premium quality. Children are no longer involved in the picking of nuts or processing. They are all sent to school since their mothers can now do the work themselves because they have formed groups.
In the rainy season, these women groups do communal faming, where they do weeding in shifts from one person to another's farm until all members' farms are weeded. They also sometimes acquire land in the name of group for farming.