How the shea kernel is transformed into butter

The non-existent shea butter market

The women of the beautiful city of Ferkéssédougou are not only housewives. housewives. In addition to their work in the fields, many of them have decided toof them have decided to keep themselves busy in a healthy way through industrialindustrial activities. This is the case of 80 women grouped together in the The Womingnon cooperative (which in French means success for all).

Created in 1996, this cooperative is involved in the extraction of shea butter. butter. With the help of development partners such as Manos Unidas and the Basque Government of Spain, Anader
Pader-Nord of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire and Germany, the Womingnon cooperative have succeeded in obtaining a shea butterof the Womingnon cooperative have succeeded in obtaining a unit for the extraction of shea butter. 

The vice-president of the cooperative, Ms. Silué Korotoumou Kanou, said Silué Korotoumou Kanabien, surrounded by her treasurer, Mrs. Yéo Agnès, and some of the members members whom we met on Thursday 29 April 2010 during a mission to mission to Ferkéssédougou, allowed us to retrace the production chain of shea butter production chain of shea butter from the shea fruit. “When When the shea fruit ripens and falls, there are women collectors who are in the villages When the shea fruit ripens and falls, there are women collectors who are in the villages to collect it, leather it and dry it.
During the drying process, the women monitor the moisture content of the product,” explained Ms. Silué.

explained Ms. Silué. The seeds are then crushed to remove the kernels.
to remove the kernels. It is after this stage that the cooperative enters the scene
stage by buying the almonds with the women collectors. 

The products The products return to the factory to be stored in a warehouse. The daily processing The daily processing capacity of the production unit is 1,300 kilograms of almonds for 400 kilograms of shea butter. 

Following the production chain, the members of the cooperative take the kernels out of the

the almonds from the storage warehouse and wash them before drying them. 

A using a scale, the almonds are weighed before going to the roaster for the roaster to be roasted and cooked. The next step, is the vice press machine which crushes the almonds, presses them to oil from the almond cake. 

When the crude oil is not completely decanted, the resulting substance is passed through the vibrating sieve to separate to separate the impurities before the last stage, which is the passage through the filter press to obtain the pure oil. 

For this purpose fine cloth is placed in the filter to prevent the impurities from escaping. 

escape. The pure oil obtained is kept in 200 litre drums for solidification, which gives the

The pure oil obtained is kept in 200-litre drums for solidification, which results in shea butter. This butter is used, according to Ms Silué, for food, as a body ointment for massage and for
massage and for treating the fontanel of newborns.