| August 4th, 2022 |
SFC Press Release – BDL Roaster Installation
“The Savannah Fruits Company purchases 7 State-of-the-Art Burn Design Lab Shea Nut Roasters for to improve traditional working conditions in local Handcrafted Shea Butter Supply Chain”
The Savannah Fruits Company, a global provider of handcrafted natural products, is excited to announce our formal partnership with Burn Design Lab (BDL), a US-based NGO focused on creating solutions to improve the lives of our women originated supply chain and protecting the environment they work and live in. BDL’s mission of bringing people together and helping the world breathe easier through the research and development of improved combustion technology aligns with SFCs own mission of empowering rural African women through community processing of the highest quality natural products while practicing a socially and environmentally responsible business.
The Savannah Fruits Company has financed the first seven locally produced BDL roasters in four of their shea butter processing centers around Tamale, Ghana. Throughout the month of June SFC’s field officers visited four handcrafted shea butter processing centers to assist BDL’s staff in installing these new roasters as well as introduce the cooperative of women to this new technology and how it is operated. This partnership will allow BDL to continue to collect data throughout the year on the performance, durability, and adoption of the roaster, as well as gather extended feedback from the women using them in their shea butter production process. These necessary steps allow BDL work towards their goal of finalizing the design and scaling the production to make these widely available across West Africa.
The roasters have already proven up to a 70% reduction in PM2.5 exposure, so we are confident that it is already improving the quality of life and health in the workplace for our shea butter processors. These roasters are particularly exciting to SFC because they significantly reduce firewood usage, as they are designed specifically to use the natural shea cake created through the shea butter process as a fuel alternative to firewood. The roasters also exponentially reduce the amount of smoke produced in the hour-long roasting process and allow for the women to sit comfortably while roasting rather than squatting near an open flame as the traditional method currently requires.
For more information on SFCs products or projects to improve our supply chains including: handcrafted organic shea butter, organic virgin coconut oil, organic baobab oil or African black soap please visit www.savannahfruits.com or email to the head of sustainability, Sofia Durrani (sofia@savannahfruits.com)
For more information on BDL’s improvements to the hand-crafted Shea butter production, please visit BDL’s website (www.burndesignlab.org) or reach out to the project manager and lead engineer, Jeremy Su (Jeremy.su@burndesignlab.org).
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