By our Special Correspondent
Shea butter has become one of the most sought-after ingredients in global cosmetics and food manufacturing. Since the early 2000s, its growing use as a substitute for cocoa butter has driven a sharp rise in international demand. Over the past 20 years, the shea sector has expanded by more than 600 percent, transforming what was once a largely local livelihood activity into a globally integrated commodity chain. Yet behind the headline growth lies a more complex reality for the millions of women who form the backbone of production across West Africa.
A Resource Across the “Shea Belt”
The shea tree grows naturally across a broad semi-arid zone stretching from Senegal in the west to South Sudan in the east, and approximately 500 kilometres from north to south. The trees are rarely planted. Instead, they are protected within farmland and found in communal bushland, forming part of a semi-domesticated agroforestry system. An estimated 16 million women across rural West Africa collect shea fruits each year, processing them into dried kernels for sale or transforming them into butter. Countries such as Burkina Faso and Ghana rank among the leading exporters of shea kernels.
International development agencies and private sector actors frequently present the shea industry as a pathway to women’s economic empowerment. Rising global demand, particularly from multinational cosmetic and food companies, has strengthened that narrative. However, recent field research in Burkina Faso and Ghana suggests that the rapid commercial expansion of shea has produced uneven outcomes.
Rising Demand, Growing Competition
Survey data collected from 1,046 collectors across 24 communities, supported by qualitative interviews, indicates that the shea boom has intensified competition for access to trees. More than 85 percent of respondents reported that the number of collectors in their communities had increased over the past decade. At the same time, access to shea trees has become more restricted.
Historically, shea collection was governed by customary rules and social norms. Women could gather nuts from communal land and from farmland belonging to their households or relatives. Shea often functioned as a semi–open-access resource, especially important for women without secure landholdings. That system is now under strain.
Agricultural expansion, mechanisation, population growth and peri-urban development have reduced the communal “bush” areas that once served as shared collection spaces. Land previously regarded as common has increasingly been converted into privately cultivated fields. More than 55 percent of surveyed collectors reported that access to shea trees on private farmland had become more tightly controlled. As landowners enforce boundaries more strictly, access for non-family members has diminished. In some areas, conflicts related to trespassing and competition over trees have become more frequent.
Three Groups, Diverging Outcomes
The research distinguishes three categories of shea collectors:
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Dedicated collectors, who rely entirely on shea for annual income
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Diversified collectors, who combine shea collection with farming or other activities
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Collector–traders, who both collect nuts and purchase them from others for resale
These groups experience the boom differently. Dedicated collectors, often among the most economically vulnerable, have the least access to private farmland. Only 16 percent reported collecting from their own fields, compared with 38–43 percent among diversified collectors and collector–traders. As communal areas shrink, their livelihoods are increasingly exposed to competition.
Diversified collectors face similar pressures on access to land, but must also divide their time between multiple income-generating activities, limiting the hours they can devote to gathering. Collector–traders, by contrast, tend to enjoy more secure access to private fields and greater household support. More than half reported receiving assistance from men in their households, such as transporting nuts or protecting fields. They are also better positioned financially: they can purchase nuts early in the season at lower prices, store them, and sell later when prices rise.
This ability to store and time the market creates a strategic advantage over poorer collectors who often need to sell immediately to meet urgent cash needs.
More Work, Limited Gains
Although international prices for shea have increased over the past decade, income gains at the collector level have been uneven. Only 48.7 percent of surveyed women reported an increase in shea income over the previous ten years. Average annual earnings from shea remain modest — approximately US$174 (purchasing power parity) per year, with significant variation across groups. For poorer collectors, restricted access to trees limits the volume they can gather. Immediate cash requirements often force early sales at lower prices. Meanwhile, better-capitalised actors are able to capture higher margins later in the season. The result is widening inequality within the collector population, even as the overall value of the sector expands.
Rethinking the “Win-Win” Narrative
The findings complicate the widely promoted narrative that integration into global value chains automatically delivers empowerment and poverty reduction. The shea boom has undeniably created new economic opportunities. International demand has strengthened export markets and raised the profile of the sector. However, market expansion has also intensified competition for land and trees, reinforced existing inequalities in access to resources, and shifted benefits toward those with stronger land rights and financial capacity.
Researchers point to several possible avenues for policy attention. Strengthening women’s land and tree rights may be critical as tenure systems evolve. Collective organisation among women, improved access to finance, and better storage infrastructure could help mitigate the need for distress sales. Sustainable farming practices are also essential to preserve the resource base amid rising pressure.
As global demand for shea continues to grow, the experience of collectors in Burkina Faso and Ghana underscores a central lesson: commodity booms can generate opportunity, but without supportive institutions and equitable access to resources, the distribution of gains may remain uneven.
