Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire

By : Boubacar Diallo

Photos : Issouf Sanogo

 

In Korhogo, in northern Ivory Coast, Souleymane’s warehouses are empty: the shea marketing season is coming to an end and nuts remain scarce, following the freeze on exports from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, which had previously compensated for the Ivorian deficit.

In 2024, Mali and Burkina Faso, the world’s second and third largest producers respectively, suspended exports of their nuts in order to prioritize supplying their local processing units.

Côte d’Ivoire, which has modest production and where shea is concentrated in the north, compensated for its deficit by sourcing supplies from these two neighboring countries.

Shea, the iconic tree of the African savannah, grows wild. Its fruits contain a nut that women collect and then sell raw or process into butter, which is essential for body care and the food industry.

“Since they suspended their exports, it has been difficult to access kernels, and on top of that, this year’s production in Côte d’Ivoire has not been profitable enough,” says Souleymane Sangaré, a buyer at the Korhogo market and vice president of the Ivorian shea network, with an air of disappointment.

Gone are the mountains of nuts in his two warehouses, where only a few bags remain this year.

“Normally, I have between 3,500 and 4,000 tons of almonds per season. This year, I haven’t even been able to get 500 tons two months after the start of the season,” from mid-August to October, he sighs.

– Strong international demand –

 

In January, Côte d’Ivoire also suspended almond exports to facilitate supply to its industry.

“We can’t criticize other countries that have done the same thing,” says Mamadou Berté, director general of the Cotton, Cashew and Shea Council.

Korogho is home to Côte d’Ivoire’s first modern shea butter processing industry.

“I signed a contract to supply kernels to this plant, but I’m struggling to fulfill it because I can’t find enough,” says Souleymane Sangaré.

In addition to Mali, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire, Togo and Nigeria have also halted their exports of raw kernels. Ghana, for its part, plans to phase out its exports by 2026.

These decisions, combined with strong international demand, stimulated by the use of shea butter as a less expensive alternative to cocoa butter, have contributed to tightening the West African market, explains consulting firm N’Kalô in its agricultural bulletin.

The result: rising prices and “very low” trading volumes.

In Côte d’Ivoire, the minimum farm gate price, set at 250 CFA francs/kg (€0.38), rose to 350 CFA francs (€0.53), while factory prices, set at 305 CFA francs/kg (€0.46), vary between 385 and 400 CFA francs/kg (between €0.58 and €0.60), according to N’kalô’s analysis at the end of November.

 

– “Slow market” –

At least 152,000 women make their living from shea butter in the production areas, according to the Ivorian Ministry of Agriculture.

At the Chigata cooperative in Natio-Kobadara, near Korhogo, dozens of women are busy making butter under the scorching sun.

In the courtyard, bags of almonds are stored, while mills hum continuously, spitting out compact, chocolate-colored shea paste.

“Last year, we sold a kilo of shea butter for between 4,000 and 4,500 CFA francs (between €6 and €6.9), which is unprecedented since we were born,” says Noulourou Assiata Soro, secretary general of this cooperative, which brings together “more than 120 women.”

However, she laments the lack of outlets for her products.

But “when it’s expensive, the market is slow,” says Tenin Silue, 49, who has been selling shea butter at the Korhogo market for ten years.

The 150-kilogram bag of almonds, which the cooperative used to buy for 60,000 CFA francs (US$87), now costs 70,000 (US$97), adds Ms. Soro.

This upward trend in prices is expected to continue in the coming weeks and months, marking the end of the season on the West African shea market, where the supply of nuts remains limited, according to the N’kalô agricultural bulletin.

In April, the Ivorian government placed the shea sector under the regulation of the Cotton and Cashew Council, which aims to identify stakeholders and marketing issues and obtain reliable production statistics, according to its director.

Humaniterre with AFP

 

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