SFC’s Innovative Post-Harvest Model for Shea Nut Processing

Revolutionizing Shea with SFC’s Sustainable Post-Harvest Model in West Africa

In a groundbreaking initiative, The Savannah Fruits Company (SFC) has piloted the first-ever post-harvest model in West Africa, revolutionizing shea supply chains in three countries – Ghana, Ivory Coast and Mali. Developed as part of SFC’s Shea Gets Greener Initiative, this approach addresses the longstanding challenges faced by women in the shea industry, enhancing efficiency, quality, and sustainability.

The Challenge: Bottlenecks in Traditional Shea Processing

For centuries, West African shea butter processing has been a time-consuming task, relying on traditional, labor-intensive methods over open flames. The process begins during the rainy season in northern Ghana which begins every May/June. Women wake up around sunrise and walk miles into the bush with a basin in hand to handpick shea fruits naturally fallen off the branches of the shea trees. Then they carry back to their homes their basin full of shea fruit often weighing up to 25 kgs.

This practice doubles women’s workload, as they must balance household duties with shea processing – negatively impacting both productivity and quality since the processing of the shea fruit into viable dried shea kernel is traditionally done within homes with little formal equipment.

Recognizing the need to modernize shea processing while respecting tradition, SFC combined tradition and technology to create a modern shea processing model for West Africa. The result: a state-of-the-art innovative post-harvest model tailored to the unique needs of West African communities while meeting international organic certification standards.

The Model: A Novel Approach to Post-Harvesting of Shea Nuts

FSFC established 20 post-harvest centers for shea nut collection and processing in northern Ghana; and modernized 13 local shea butter processing centers while establishing brand-new organic shea production supply chains in Mali and Cote d’Ivoire.

Key Features of the Model:

1. Centralized Contaminant-Free Facilities
The post-harvest model introduces a controlled space dedicated to organic shea nut processing, reducing contamination, improving working conditions and preserving nut quality. Facilities are designed with fenced-in areas keeping nuts safe from wildlife, chemicals, and foreign materials promoting high quality production. Designated cooperative women will be working at this facility to receive fresh shea fruits from their fellow cooperative members. They will then sort the shea fruits and de-pulp them for the kernel, sorting, washing, parboiling and drying as a group, while their fellow coop members return to the bush to collect more shea.

2. Dedicated Warehousing as Storage Solutions
Each post-harvest facility is equipped with a dedicated nut warehouse for safe, centralized safekeeping that meets international organic certification standards before the nuts are transported to butter processing centers, adding reliability to the supply chain.

3. Modern Equipment and Motorized Tricycles
Each cooperative has allocated motorized tricycles and updated processing equipment, significantly improving nut collection and transportation speed and ease. Women can now collect five times more nuts, saving valuable time and increasing earnings.

4. Customized Parboiling Concept
To further improve safety and quality, SFC has constructed for each center a set of boiling stoves with a chimney design which reduces the amount of water and biomass fuel needed during this process. The design insulates heat around the boiling pots and maintains heat more optimally than the traditional three stone open flame fire that women regularly use to stop germination of fresh kernel.

5. Drying Platforms
Each post-harvest facility uses a customized drying system with shaded roofs to create controlled drying environments for parboiled kernels. This system, utilizing drying shelves, saves time and space. The peak shea nut picking season coincides with the rainy season in northern Ghana. Traditionally, women have been vulnerable to rain delays in the sun-drying process. The sheltered drying system allows women to continue drying kernels, even during rainfall, significantly reducing drying time and preventing interruptions.

6. Sustainable Job Creation
25,000+ new jobs have already been created through this model: from collectors to processors, drivers for motorized tricycles to coordinators and facility managers — the model has generated livelihoods and enhanced economic empowerment.

Other Benefits of the Post-Harvest Model

Increased Collection Capacity: Women can now transport up to 100 kg of nuts in one trip back from the shea landscape, increasing productivity by 5x and income potential.

Improved Quality Control: Controlled, centralized spaces eliminate contamination, ensuring that international clients receive the highest quality shea products.

Environmental Impact Reduction: Improved boiling stoves with chimneys lower firewood use, reducing deforestation and limiting smoke exposure for the women using this infrastructure.

Enhanced Community Ownership: The facilities are owned and managed independently by cooperatives, enabling communities to use these centers for other agricultural activities beyond shea nut processing during the dry season.

Strengthened Solidarity: Having a community of women to work with has built deeper relationships and understanding among women.

A Greener Future for Shea

With SFC’s post-harvest model, the shea industry is on a path to sustainable transformation. By reducing environmental impact, improving working conditions, and increasing income opportunities, Shea Gets Greener paved the way for a thriving future—one that benefits women, preserves tradition, and meets the demands of an evolving global market. If you would like to get involved in creating more of these opportunities, please contact SFC’s Head of Sustainability & CSR at sofia@savannahfruits.com

Explore More

To learn more about the Shea Gets Greener project, its impact on West African communities, and the journey of shea from nut to butter, explore our detailed SGG report.