Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

108 The contribution of shea butter (Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertner) to local livelihoods in Benin

The impact of the international trade on the local future of shea

The international and, to some extent, the domestic trade of shea is likely to

be the determining factor in the future of shea in the study area. Local

consumption of shea butter will probably continue to decline gradually and

decisions about whether or not to retain shea trees in the fields will depend

primarily on their value as a source of income. This value, in turn, depends on

the demand generated by the international trade. The scanty information

available about this topic has been reviewed by Boffa (1999) and is summarised

in Box 1. If demand for kernels rises, the high density of shea trees and excellent

transport links of the study area would put local women in a good position to

benefit from increased sales, providing they received reliable and timely market

information. Currently, women get a feel for prices only once the purchasing

campaign starts in mid August, at which point it is already too late in the

season to adjust collection strategies. If demand is high, their best option is

to sell a greater proportion of the stock of kernels they would normally have

reserved for their own consumption. Given the oversupply on the international

market, this is not considered a problem for the industry.

Box 1. What future for the global trade in shea?

The evidence suggests that there is potential for increase in the domestic

markets of shea in producer countries, both for use as a food item and in

the cosmetics industry. The 1994 devaluation of the CFA franc increased

the price of imported oils thus favouring internally produced palm oil and

shea butter. In Burkina Faso, for example, the two main oil-producing

companies appear to have devoted all their stocks to domestic soap

production rather than to export, and a number of new small-scale processing

enterprises have appeared. The potential probably exists for developing

cheap, stable and odourless packaged industrial products for local markets.

At the international level, it appears that demand for shea for food purposes

has declined in recent years. In part this drop is caused by a fall in demand

for chocolate products in Eastern Europe (where they may contain up to

15% shea butter) as a result of economic difficulties, and in part because of

competition with cocoa butter and other CBEs.

The area with the most immediate potential for expansion is the cosmetics

sector, although its maximum potential has been estimated by Brun (1996)

at just 1,500 t/year. Half of the demand of the cosmetics industry is supplied

by the food processing industry at a price twice that for food applications.

While the refining process used by the food industries has the advantage of

stabilising the butter, it also reduces the unsaponifiable fraction desired

for cosmetics use. A number of cosmetics companies are therefore trying

to obtain their butter directly from African processors in spite of the

difficulties in working with this pure and often less stable product. Production

in partnership with African suppliers and processors could meet the current

demand among consumers for natural products produced in environment-

friendly ways.

Source: adapted from Boffa 1999.

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