Fair Trade Shea Butter

The Importance of Fair Trade

As it has always been, Africa is a place of abundant natural resources. Today, the buzz word is shea butter. Some have even called it Africa's "liquid gold." However, we must take care that the women, men and children across West and central Africa who are ultimately responsible for bringing this oil to the rest of the world are compensated fairly. Unfortunately, although shea butter is a uniquely African resource (shea trees are native to West and Central Africa and grow wild throughout the wooded savanna), it is not the local gatherers and producers that are benefiting from its trade.

Today, the majority of all the shea nuts collected in Africa, about 606,500 metric tons, are purchased and controlled by European and Asian corporations, such as Unilever (UK), Arhus (Denmark), Fuji Itoh and Kaneka-Mitsubishi (Japan), and Karlshams (Sweden). Together, these corporations have such buying power that they are able to control the price of shea nuts. The prices that these corporations pay do not equal a living wage, since the time to gather, dry and shell the shea nuts is not factored into the price. This is in part due to the fact that one or more middlemen are involved, so the final price paid to the gatherers is very small. The current structure of the trade puts the gatherers at a distinct disadvantage.

The shea trade process begins when multinationals visit the capital cities and find wealthy businessmen who are not averse to taking advantage of their own people. These middlemen go into the countryside and buy the shea nuts and traditionally processed shea butter at below the market price. The western corporations begin by setting a price that they will pay for the raw material. The businessmen from the capital then quote a lower price to the local officials. The local officials take their cut as well, and proclaim another even lower price. There may be as many as three more middlemen in the process.

By the time the funds reach the gatherers and producers, the price paid per unit does not come close to reflecting the real market price. The women who have done all the back breaking work of bending, gathering, and transporting the nuts are left with no alternative but to accept the meager funds offered to them. Note that in countries where economic opportunities are limited, especially for women, one is left with little choice but to take what is offered. Furthermore, the shea nuts are then taken outside the country to be extracted and refined in the west. This takes potential employment away from the local people.

It requires 20 to 30 hours of labor to produce one kilogram of handcrafted shea butter, which is traded at $1 or less in today's market. The women who gather shea nuts and hand craft this remarkable oil receive only a tiny fraction of this dollar for almost a week's worth of work. Even if the many middlemen were eliminated and these women received the whole dollar, this does not even begin to reach living wage standards. Therefore, it is extremely important for shea producing communities that consumers are aware of the source of their shea butter. It is not enough to think that just purchasing any shea butter will benefit the producers.

What we are doing

Alaffia fair trade shea butter is handcrafted by the Agbanga Karite Group, a member controlled shea butter cooperative in central Togo. This cooperative, which is made up of over 60 local women shea butter artisans, is involved in the entire process - from gathering the wild shea nuts and crafting the butter, to distribution locally and abroad. Alaffia and Agbanga Karite have eliminated the middlemen and have also pledged to follow fair trade and organic guidelines. As a result, Agbanga Karite members receive fair and steady incomes. Alaffia and Agbanga Karite believe in "building African self-empowerment the moral way" and in addition to providing fair wages in a country with high unemployment and following organic production guidelines, they reinvest funds from shea butter sales directly back to their communities in the form of community enhancement projects, AIDS and malaria outreach, and educational scholarships. GACE was created by the Agbanga Karite Group and Alaffia Fair Trade Shea Butter to implement and oversee their community enhancement projects.

What you can do

1. Purchase fair trade shea butter and other products as much as possible
2. Encourage your supermarket to carry fair trade products
3. Ask your political representatives to support fair trade policies and legislation