The House of Shea Butter

They are known as the house of Shea butter! The Ayinia family of the tribe of Kassena migrated from Burkina Faso to Northern Ghana- specifically Wale Wale- where they established and began producing shea butter. “We want to produce more shea butter than we are currently doing but we are not able to do so because there is no dedicated grinding mill for our shea nut”- says David, a member of the family. Shea nut cannot be grinded using the same griding mill of other grains unless it has been thoroughly cleaned. Due to this, local producers of shea butter have to wait for the grinding mill to be cleared of other food products such as maize, beans etc. to grind their shea nut. The waiting period could last for 48hrs. The higher the quantity of the other food products, the longer the waiting time. Ghana remains in the top 5 largest exporter of shea nuts. Ghana is also known for being one of the countries with the most developed shea butter processing sector and the largest exporter of unrefined shea butter in the world. Even though Ghana remains the top in these, local producers are going through some challenges in the production of shear butter.