Shea butter has currently become an incredible economic commodity and has gained international appreciation due to its medicinal value. Most cosmetic and confectionery shops around the world describe shea butter as a "hot" commodity. Meanwhile the required financial support to fuel the development of butter production and marketing has been unsatisfactory over the years. This book basically explores the peculiarities of shea butter processing, the level of financing, financial products used to deliver financial services, the constraints of the sector, the policy and regulatory environments of the industry and finally provides antidotes for boosting financing and the entire development of shea butter production and marketing in Northern Ghana.
Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Supply, Production, Logistics, University for Development studies, course: Bsc Agribusiness management and finance, language: English, abstract: This study aimed at analyzing the benefits, cost and constraints of production of quality Shea butter in relation to production methods amongst processors in Tamale Metropolis. Specifically, it was to assess cost-benefits of production of quality butter. Secondly, to determine the factors that influences marketable quality butter. Lastly, to analyze the constraints to the production of quality marketable Shea butter. The study was conducted in 4 communities in Tamale Metropolis because these are the communities with abundant shea butter processors. A total of 80 respondents were interviewed with 20 respondents being selected from each of the communities using snowball sampling. The average costs, average revenues and profits were calculated on yearly basis. The study revealed that averagely individual processes 3 bags (90kg each) of Shea nuts in a week and this yield 3 units of shea butter which weighs 25kg each. This yields an average of 75kgs of Shea butter selling at an average price of GHc73. A processor has an average total cost of GHc8609 per year, average total revenue of GHc10512 per year and the profit yielded is GH1622.8 per year. This gave a benefit cost ratio of 1.2:1 which implied that producing quality butter was profitable. Probit model was used analyze the factors influencing the quality of Shea butter. Out of the seven (7) estimated coefficients number of years in processing, improvement in technology and orderly processing procedures significantly explains the likelihood that a respondent produces quality Shea butter. The study also revealed that the major problems encountered by processors were; lack of capital to purchase enough nuts and expand production, unstable markets, high prices of nuts, dangers associated with picking nuts from the bush, shortage of water in lean season. The results of the Kendall‟s coefficient of concordance revealed fair level of agreement (40%) among respondents. On recommendation, Shea board should be rejuvenated to function effectively.
Shea butter (butyrospermin parkii) has been produced and sold by rural West African women and circulated on the world market as a raw material for more than a century. Shea butter has been used for cooking, making soap and candles, leatherworking, dying, as a medical and beauty aid, and most significantly, as a substitute for cocoa butter in chocolate production. Now sold in exclusive shops as a high-priced cosmetic and medicinal product, it caters to the desire of cosmopolitan customers worldwide for luxury and exotic self-indulgence. This ethnographic study traces shea from a pre- to post-industrial commodity to provide a deeper understanding of emerging trends in tropical commoditization, consumption, global economic restructuring and rural livelihoods. Also inlcludes seven maps.
