BreakFast Live S1E6 | Protecting Shea Trees and Rediscovering its Potentials

‘’You see the problem of Shea has to do with standards and pricing. We don’t have the right standards. Cocoa has the standards and there is so much investment in the area that is why we are calling for more investment in the sector because if there is an investment, the research that they do, it will trickle down. If it is about training young people to be able to plant to regenerate like the cocoa, they can just go and cut down trees and spray it and reproduce it that is what we need to do for the Shea sector. So that is what the tree crop bill they want to do. But it is also a responsibility of all of us to hammer it. If you go to sleep as you said. If that sector was dominated by men like by now, the government would work on it. But because it is a female-dominated area for us it’s very true. But when it comes to buying the nuts you see the men there. They will not go and pick but they will be at the market to buy and export. But they should also know that if it is their livelihood and if we are finishing the trees, they need to be part of protecting the trees.’’

Hajia Alima Sagito

‘’The challenges in the sector are so many. I mean the chain is full of challenges and the worst of it is the standard of pricing that we don’t have because the pricing is bad. Look at the energy women put into processing and then you can have 25kg for 180 or 185 sometimes less than 200 Ghana and that is where the problem is. Like some time ago myself and one of my staff Fuseini I ask them to go to the communities and do if a woman process 100kg of Shea nuts and then  to sell do they really make profit. You will realize the women will do all this and 40% is from their own money. You see, the women will not calculate the firewood, the water they will not cost it.

So what we did was that. We sit with the women and ask them what it takes to produce 25kg of Shea butter, they start you buy nuts, you will need firewood, you need this labour, this number of children or people to help you. Supposing by day you are paying this for labour cost, put them together and see how much it cost. At that time 25kg of Shea cost less than Ghc 100.00 meanwhile the cost of production was around 145. For them, they think they are making a profit because they have not cost the labour, the firewood, water and the food that the children will eat while supporting them. So you see the pricing is a problem’’

Hajia Alima Sagito

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