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https://theconversation.com/global-demand-for-shea-butter-is-growing-but-its-not-all-good-news-for-the-women-who-collect-the-nuts-273242>
"Shea butter has become a highly sought-after ingredient in cosmetics and food
manufacturing worldwide. Since the early 2000s its use as a substitute for
cocoa butter has driven a dramatic rise in international demand. The shea
butter industry has grown by more than 600% over the last 20 years.
The shea tree is semi-domesticated across the dry savannah region in a “shea
belt” west to east from Senegal to South Sudan, and about 500km north to south.
It is not planted but protected within farmland and also found in communal
bushland.
An estimated 16 million women collect and process shea fruits in rural west
Africa, turning them into dry kernels for sale or processing the kernels into
shea butter.
Global companies, development agencies and NGOs frequently present the shea
industry as a pathway to women’s economic empowerment in the region.
To explore this idea, we conducted research into how the rise in demand for
shea butter has affected women collectors in Burkina Faso and Ghana. These two
countries are among the lead exporters of dry shea kernels.
The study formed part of our work on agrarian change, political ecology and
livelihoods. We study relationships between producers and other actors of
global value chains, as well as the impacts of externally induced changes on
smallholders.
We combined data from a survey of 1,046 collectors in 24 communities with data
from interviews with 18 collectors.
Our results show that the shea boom has intensified competition for access to
trees. Over 85% of collectors surveyed reported an increase in the number of
shea nut collectors in their community over the past 10 years. We also
documented how access to shea trees was becoming more restricted, especially
for women who rely most heavily on shea for their livelihoods.
Our results point to widening inequality within the collector population, even
as the overall value of the shea sector grows."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
