Environmental Sustainability of Unrefined Shea Butter

Shea butter is one of the world's most sustainable natural resources. The shea trees grow naturally in the grasslands of west and central Africa and do not need any irrigation, fertilizer or pesticides. Shea trees produce an abundance of fruit without the need for fertilizers. Because they are native to the West African savanna and are not grown in dense plantations, pests are also not a problem. Thus, there is no need for toxic pesticides. Shea trees are adapted to the savanna environment and do not need to be irrigated. They are also resistant to the fires that sweep through the savannas every dry season.

Shea trees are wild, and are not grown in plantations. Efforts to start shea plantations have failed for two reasons. First, shea trees do not germinate easily and have not been viable in plantation settings. Second, it takes at least 25 years for a shea tree to produce large numbers of fruits. For these reasons, there are no shea tree plantations, and shea butter remains a wild product. Purchasing unrefined shea butter helps keep this natural resource sustainable.

Economic Sustainability of Unrefined Shea Butter

Exporting large quantities of shea nuts to Europe and other countries and extracting the oil with hexane is not environmentally or economically sustainable. There is the possibility of over-exploitation; in order for a shea nut dealer to make money, he must sell very large quantities, since the nuts are sold at a very low price. In this case, the people gathering the nuts are not paid a fair price, since their labor is never factored into the price. For example, a large shea nut buyer will pay as low as five cents for one kilogram of shea nuts.The labor that goes into producing one kilogram of shea nuts is immense. First, they are gathered from the ground around shea trees that are scattered over a large area. Second, they are boiled, dried, the outer fruit is removed, the kernels are dried again, the kernels are cracked, and finally, the nuts are removed and dried a final time.

The local price for nuts is much higher, and when the final product is sold rather than the raw resource, the local people receive a higher percentage of the final price. However, even in this case one has to be careful. In most cases, the people making the butter (usually poor women in villages and towns), sell their product to a middle man for a low price. The middle person then sells it abroad in large quantities - full container loads - at a low international price. The percentage of the price that the consumer pays - USD 1 or more per ounce - which the original producers receive is very small. As observer noted, "When shea butter is sold on the Northern markets, either in its natural form or reprocessed and incorporated into another product, the Southern producers are lost at the bottom of a long trade chain."

Agbanga Karite members are in control of the entire process - from gathering to selling the product to businesses around the world. Therefore, the people making the butter are receiving a much higher percentage of the final price.