Knowing more about the "Shea" and the process.

 Shea nuts are known in the

local Dioula language as

karite

(life). They grow mostly in

the wild with little need for any special cu

ltivation. The shea nut tree grows in abundance

and is one of the few renewable resources in

the semi-arid Sahel region of West Africa. It

is found in a belt about 300 kilometres wide

extending from Mali through Burkina Faso

to Ghana, Togo and Benin. This ‘shea belt’ is

the only place in the world where the tree

grows. The largest concentration is found in

Burkina Faso, across more than 80 per cent

of the country. The shea tree has a very long lif

espan of up to 200 years. It produces fruit

after its fifteenth year, but does not reach full

production until it is 25 years old. The shea

tree has many uses: the bark is used as an

ingredient in many traditional medicines

against childhood ailments and

in the treatment of minor

scrapes and cuts. The shell

serves as a mosquito repellent – vital in a

region where malaria kills thousands of people

a year. The shea tree also helps prevent wind

erosion and adds organic matter back to the

soil. The nuts are processed

to obtain shea butter, which

is used as cooking oil, for

making soap, as medicine, and in cosmetics.

In many western countries shea butter is

highly prized for its superb h

ealing and moisturising properti

es and is widely used in

creams, sunscreen lotions and conditioners and

in the treatment of bur

ns and muscle pain.

It is also used in chocolat

e manufacturing, since it comple

ments cocoa very well, and is

processed into baking fat, margarin

e, and cocoa butter substitutes.

Traditionally, shea nut harvesting and pro

cessing are rural women’s work. The women

would individually collect the

nuts of the wild-growing shea

tree and conve

rt them to

shea butter in a very labour-int

ensive process. Only small

quantities of shea nuts were

processed into butter, however. The women

would grind the nuts by

hand, press them –

often walking several miles to a press in anot

her village and back to

carry out this stage

of the process – and boil and filter the oil