The President of the Ghana Shea Employers Association of the Northern Region and Chief Executive Officer of Maltiti A. Enterprise Limited, Hajia Rabiatu Abukari, has urged the government to establish local facilities for organic shea testing and certification, arguing that Ghanaian dealers continue to spend unnecessarily on a process that could be handled within the country.
Speaking on challenges confronting the shea industry with the Daily Graphic, Hajia Abukari said processors were still compelled to send samples abroad for testing before organic certification could be obtained, a situation that increases costs and delays business operations.
Her concerns come at a time when demand for certified organic shea products continues to rise across Europe, North America and parts of Asia, where the products are widely used in the cosmetics, pharmaceutical and personal care industries.
Ghana is among Africa's leading shea-producing countries. Across the Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper East and Upper West regions, thousands of women depend on the collection, processing and sale of shea products as a source of income.
Organic shea products must meet internationally recognised standards. Producers are required to demonstrate that the nuts are collected from areas free from prohibited chemicals and that strict procedures are followed during harvesting, processing, storage and transportation to prevent contamination. Certification is granted only after inspections and testing by accredited bodies.
According to Hajia Abukari, Ghana's continued dependence on foreign laboratories for this process places local businesses at a disadvantage.
"Before organic shea is certified, samples have to be flown outside the country for testing.
This increases costs for businesses and delays the certification process.
We produce the nuts and process the butter here, so it is only proper that we develop the capacity to test and certify our products locally," she said.
She called on the government, the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, and the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) to invest in the infrastructure, equipment and technical expertise required to support local testing and certification.
For a country that supplies significant quantities of shea nuts and butter to the international market, she believes relying on external laboratories is no longer sustainable.
Local testing, she said, would reduce certification costs, shorten waiting periods and strengthen confidence in Ghana's quality assurance systems while improving the competitiveness of locally processed products.
Raw nut exports
Beyond certification, Hajia Abukari Rabiatu expressed concern about the growing export of raw shea nuts, warning that the trend is making it increasingly difficult for local processors to access the quantities they need for production.
Organic shea butter
She explained that many buyers purchase large volumes of nuts and ship them abroad for processing, leaving local enterprises, particularly women-led businesses, struggling to secure raw materials.
"We are not against foreigners buying Ghanaian products. In fact, we want them to buy the shea butter produced by local processors.
The challenge is that many come for the nuts, export them and process them elsewhere. If this continues, local processors will gradually be pushed out of business," she stated.
She therefore called for policies that encourage greater local value addition by promoting the export of processed shea butter and other finished products rather than raw nuts.
Industry players have consistently maintained that expanding local processing would create more jobs, particularly for women and young people, while helping Ghana retain a greater share of the value generated within the shea sector.
Pressure on women processors
The challenge is already being felt in many shea-producing communities across northern Ghana.
Hajia Rabiatu said women processors increasingly struggle to buy nuts because exporters often dominate local markets, purchasing available stocks in bulk.
As a result, many community-based processors are forced to compete for limited supplies at higher prices.
Ensuring that local processors have access to adequate quantities of raw materials, she noted, would strengthen rural economies and help sustain the livelihoods of women who depend on shea processing for income.
Threat to shea trees
Hajia Abukari also drew attention to what she described as a growing threat to the future of the industry: the destruction of shea trees through charcoal production, indiscriminate felling and annual bushfires.
A shea butter processor at work
She warned that continued degradation of shea parklands could undermine an industry that supports thousands of households across northern Ghana.
The shea tree is one of the region's most valuable indigenous economic trees.
Beyond providing nuts for butter production, it contributes to household incomes, food security and environmental conservation.
Because the tree takes many years to mature before fruiting, replacing lost trees is a long-term challenge.
To safeguard the resource, she called on the Tree Crops Development Authority, the Forestry Commission, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, and traditional authorities to intensify efforts to protect existing shea trees and curb illegal felling.
She also advocated increased investment in regeneration programmes, public education and community-led conservation initiatives.
"The shea industry contributes significantly to household incomes and Ghana's export earnings. Protecting the trees, supporting women processors and strengthening local value addition should be a national priority," she stressed.
