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Tag: Shea butter

  • The all purpose remedy from the North, shea butter

    The all purpose remedy from the North, shea butter

    Shea butter, a beloved natural product, has been cherished for thousands of years. This versatile fat is extracted from the nuts of the African shea tree and is renowned for its healing properties, thanks to its rich content of vitamins and fatty acids.

    Origins and Varieties
    Beyond its widespread cosmetic uses, shea butter is also edible and can replace various cooking oils and butter. Two subspecies of trees yield shea butter nuts: Vitellaria Paradoxa from West Africa (notably Ghana and Nigeria) and Vitellaria Nilotica from East Africa (specifically Uganda).

    Photo by Kew Gardens

    Shea trees, which take up to 50 years to mature, grow naturally in Northern Ghana.

    The Shea Butter Production Process
    Harvesting and Initial Preparation

    Shea fruits are harvested between late April and early June. While the fruit is enjoyed as a snack, the seeds are collected and crushed into smaller pieces.

    Traditionally, this crushing is done by hand using a mortar and pestle, a labor-intensive task. Modern grinding mills have since streamlined this process.

    Roasting and Grinding

    The crushed seeds are gently roasted over a fire, which helps release the oils and butter. This step is crucial and time-consuming, requiring careful attention to prevent burning. Modern methods have made this step safer and more efficient.

    Photo by Kew Gardens and Heifer International

    The roasted seeds are then ground a second time in a hopper, producing a paste. Oil is extracted at the bottom of the hopper. Water is added to the paste, and it is kneaded until the desired consistency is achieved.

    The mixture is then hand-whipped and churned to coagulate the shea oil into early-stage shea butter, a process that demands significant manual effort.

    Final Processing

    The coagulated shea oil is skimmed off and undergoes cooking, skimming, and settling before it is left to cool and solidify.

    Benefits and Uses of Shea Butter
    Culinary Uses

    Shea butter is safe to eat and is a source of healthy fats and vitamins. Unrefined shea butter can be used in a variety of dishes, from stir-fries and stews to vegan meals and deep frying.

    It can even substitute for coconut oil in smoothies, providing a creamy texture. While rural households rely heavily on shea butter for sustenance, it has also gained popularity across Ghana, Africa, the Americas, and Europe.

    Cosmetic Applications

    Shea butter is a staple in lotions, moisturizers, and balms. It is an excellent moisturizer for both hair and skin, with many women attributing their youthful appearance and healthy hair to organic, raw shea butter.

    Its low protein content makes it suitable for all skin types, reducing the risk of allergic reactions. The high levels of linoleic acid and oleic acid allow it to absorb easily without feeling heavy or clogging pores.

    Medicinal Benefits

    Anti-inflammatory: Shea butter can soothe burns, dry skin, and conditions like eczema, dermatitis, and psoriasis due to its anti-inflammatory plant esters.


    Anti-aging: It aids in cell regeneration, reducing wrinkles, fine lines, stretch marks, and scars, thanks to triterpenes, which are believed to prevent collagen fiber destruction.

    Other Benefits: Shea butter soothes sunburn and insect bites, promotes wound healing, prevents hair breakage, and treats dandruff.


    Considerations
    While refined shea butter is hydrating, it lacks the skin-calming properties of unrefined shea butter. Ensure you are familiar with its source and any additional ingredients before consumption.

    If you experience any side effects or allergic reactions, discontinue use and consult your healthcare provider.

  • Australian Government supports Sagnarigu shea butter processors

    Australian Government supports Sagnarigu shea butter processors

    The Australian government has gone to the aid of some shea butter processors in Sagnarigu.

    A total of 150 women shea butter processors in the Sagnarigu Municipality in the Northern Region received the support to increase their production and enhance their livelihoods.

    The support formed part of a $373,000 grant launched in 2022 by the Australian Government to support some selected African countries including Ghana.

    The beneficiaries have been presented with start-up kits such as processing roasters, basins, mini-water storage tanks, buckets and oil extraction cooking pots.

    They have also benefited from capacity building on financial management, savings, and record keeping.

    The women are beneficiaries of the “Increasing Productivity and Profitability of Women-Owned Small-Scale Businesses” project implemented by Children Believe, a child focus organisation in Ghana and the Markaz Al Bishara Child Development Programme.

    Visit

    The support was made known when the Second Secretary at the Australian High Commission in Ghana, Harriet Williams, and some other development partners visited Katariga and Tampe-Kukuo in the Sagnarigu Municipality, to interact with the project beneficiaries.

    The visit was also to interact with the project partners to identify gaps that were created during the implementation and how to sustain the project.

    Speaking to the media during the visit, Ms Williams said “I must say I am very impressed with what I have seen, I know a lot of works have gone into these and I wish to thank Children Believe for a good work done. We will continue to support, especially in the area of women empowerment.”

    The Country Director of Children Believe, Esenam Kavi Desouza, said the participation of women in profitable small-scale businesses was essential to ensuring that their rights were recognised and to enable them to have control over their personal lives, while exerting influence in their homes and communities.

    She also said though shea butter production was the main livelihood for over 900,000 rural women in Ghana, they benefited less from the final value of the commodity, hence the need for the implementation of the project. 

  • Shea production set to thrive in Bole

    Following the implementation of a business trainer of trainees program for women in business management skills, in order to enable them to profit from the business, it is anticipated that commercial operations of shea butter processors in the Bole area of the Savannah Region will flourish.

    The beneficiaries, selected from five (5) communities in the Bole district of the Savannah Region, had their capacity built in high-quality productions, smart marketing tactics, solid customer relations, and smart packaging that will satisfy consumer demand and help them make some money to expand their businesses.

    The program gave the 600 or so women cooperatives represented by the women organizations an opportunity to communicate and discuss their manufacturing and marketing experiences.

    They were also linked to some investors to secure funding for their production.

    It was organised by PureTrust Foundation-LBG, a Non-Governmental Organisation, with support from United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) under its West Africa Competiveness Project (WACOMP), and the European Union.

    The WACOMP project invests in enhancing the export competitiveness of cosmetic and other products in Ghana.

    The beneficiary groups in the Bole district, who are producers of Shea butter and other cosmetic products, are part of the Pagsung Shea Alliance led by Pagsung Shea Cooperative Association – a women-led group based in Tamale.

    The training took place at Kilampobile, and the beneficiary communities include Bale, Chache, Seripe, Ntereso and Kilampobile.

    The facilitator, Madam Rabi Bashiru Nuhu of Chibo House of Chemicals, said the training was to educate women on the need to add value to their products; and how to develop market strategies, good customer relations, among others, to boost their businesses.

    This was to help revamp the business of women that was collapsing due to the economic situation and price hikes which have made things difficult for their soap-making businesses.

    Most of them were on the verge of abandoning their businesses while others complained they were not able to recoup their capital invested, she explained.

    “In business, there are two things when prices increase; it’s either you reduce the quantity of your product and sell it the same price, or you maintain the quantity and increase the price,” she said.

    The programmes coordinator for Pure Trust Foundation-LBG, Alhassan Abdallah, said with the inception of COVID-19, most Shea butter businesses collapsed and the impact affected a majority of the women groups.

    “Our research shows that most of the women who continue to produce the soap and other products do not make adequate profits due to high cost of the inputs; hence the refresher training,” he said.

    Madam Martha Agandaa, Project support staff of PureTrust, encouraged beneficiary women to take the training seriously and apply knowledge gained to improve their income generation and livelihoods.

    She also urged them to learn lessons from the challenges and successes of their businesses, adding that this will help them improve their business management abilities.

  • New Gbele to get organic shea nut storehouse

    The Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission will be putting up an organic shea nut storehouse for the people of New Gbele to promote the collection and sale of shea nuts to its partners-Savannah Fruits Company.

    Executive Director of the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, Bernard Asamoah-Boateng, has hinted that the shea nut storehouse will be financed by the Livelihood Improvement Programme under the Sustainable Land and Water Management Project (SLWMP).

    Mr Asamoah-Boateng said this in a speech read on his behalf by Dr Richard Gyimah, during the Inauguration of the new Gbele community in the Sissala West District of the Upper West Region.

    He noted that the women of Gbele would be allowed to gather essential non-timber forest products (NTFPs) such as the Baobab seeds, shea nuts and Dawadawa from the Reserve when these fruits were in the season even though they have moved out.

    He said the success story of the resettlement programme paved the way for both the Wildlife Division and the people of Gbele together with other stakeholders to create opportunities in wildlife conservation, which came with many socio-economic benefits to all.

    “There are now new opportunities for development partners, donors and private sector to invest in the Gbele Resource Reserve and new Gbele for the benefit of all including the three political districts fringing the Reserve and indeed the Upper West Region and Ghana as a whole”, Mr Samoah-Boateng said.

    The Executive Director of the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission noted that the Division would like to treat the old Gbele settlement as a heritage site, calling for investment into developing the idea that could yield positive socio-economic benefits to the people of new Gbele, the Wildlife Division and the adjoining districts.

    Mr Asamoah-Boateng noted that the Gbele Resource Reserve had a huge potential for eco-tourism development with products such as game viewing, bird hunting and wildlife photography, among other tourism products that could be developed.

    “We call on the private sector to team up with the Wildlife Division to develop and market these products that could serve as employment avenues for the youth of new Gbele”, he said.

    Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, the Upper West Regional Minister noted that agriculture was the mainstay of the people and thanked the Commission for securing 300 hectares of land from the people of Dasima Community to support the agricultural activities of new Gbele.

    Kuoro Kasim Kanton IV, the Chief of Gbele, in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Luki Yussif Fuo, a member of the community, noted that they thought the idea of resettling them out of the forest was just a dream until they came to count their houses in 2007 and 2014 respectively.

    He thanked the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission and the government for fulfilling their dream and appealed for the community to be enrolled unto the school feeding programme as well as the provision of two additional boreholes and a CHPS Compound to address the needs of the people.

    Kuoro Kanton also appealed to the Assembly and for that matter government to extend electricity to the community to enhance security at night while also promoting local socio-economic activities and entertainment.

    Source: GNA

  • Upper Wests struggling shea industry

    Shea butter extraction, which is a major industry in the Upper West Region, needs a lot of financial support to enhance production for the economic development of the country.

    At the moment, the extraction of the shea is done on a very small scale by women in addition to their socially assigned roles as child-bearers and keepers of the home.

    Read: Demand for shea butter in the North shoots up following harmattan season

    Picking of the shea fruits which provide the butter is done by individuals at dawn between May and July in the bush, after which they are boiled for some 30 minutes and dried out in the sun for some weeks.

    The picking of the shea fruits from the ground by the females can be a perilous affair because the nuts which taste sweet are also eaten by wildlife such as snakes and scorpions.

    The pickers, therefore, compete with the snakes and scorpions for the nuts at dawn when visibility is very poor, leading to most of them sustaining bites which sometimes lead to death due to the scarcity of anti-snake serum at the local health facilities.

    However, they have to brave the storm because the proceeds from the sale of the shea fruits enable the women to provide support to their husbands to maintain the family.

    When collected, a maxi bag of the nuts could be sold for GH¢300, which is not easily affordable to the small-scale producers of the butter, especially in the rural areas.

    Mwinbinbu

    At the moment in the Wa Municipality, one such producer of the shea butter who was hitherto supported by the Agriculture Sector Infrastructure Project (ASIP) is the Mwinbinbu Women’s Group.

    The group, which constitutes about 30 women, was founded in 1986 and is engaged in the processing of the raw material into shea butter.

    The age group of the women is between 21 and 70. Mwinbinbu means gift of God.

    Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the 70-year-old Secretary of the group, Hajia Hawa Seidu, said last year they experienced a bumper harvest but they could not purchase enough fruits due to financial constraints.

    Hajia Seidu said in the area, one major obstacle to the women, who constituted a significant proportion of the population, was funding, and the ASIP which used to assist them in agro-processing had folded up, leaving them to their own fate. “No assistance comes from anywhere,” she said.

    Preparation

    Hajia Seidu explained that after the shea fruits had been boiled and dried in the sun, they were crushed by the machines and the nuts removed and separated from the shells, roasted and grinded in another machine into smaller parts.

    Read: Shea butter processing factory to employ about 250 people in Bongo District

    After grinding, she said, the products were kneaded in water and vigorously mixed with the hands and boiled again.

    This is when the whitish oil substance which appears is scooped out of the water and boiled into a white fluid. She said at that stage, the produce was stirred, sieved to remove any foreign particles and then boiled again to the required quantity.

    Hajia Seidu said the shea butter was then poured into a pot in the packaging room and allowed to cool down overnight, after which it was ready for packaging.

    Last year, she said the group had some financial support from an expatriate who had a personal interest; he bought the entire produce for export, adding sometimes the assistance came with strings attached and sometimes too late.

    That made them dependent on their male partners and also made them unable to take their destiny into their own hands.

    Shea butter has a lot of economic and social values. Apart from its use for household and commercial frying, it can be used as a base for soap and cosmetics.

     

    Source: Graphic.com.gh