Although no specific data exists showing the proportion of wild harvested shea nuts, it is presumed that the vast majority of shea nuts production is from wild Shea Tree populations. One of the primary reasons for a lack of plantations is the long time that it takes for the trees to reach maturity and begin to bear fruit. Even so, Nigeria has proposed the creation of commercial shea plantation to take advantage of the upsurge in international shea butter sales (Garba, Nwawe, & Oisakede, 2011; Koloche et al., 2016).

Several studies have highlighted the role shea in relation to poverty reduction and livelihood improvement, particularly for women (Adams, Abudulai, & Bashiru, 2016; Adedokun, Idowu, Soaga, & Aderogba, 2016; Hatskevich et al., 2011; Solomom, Gold, & Igene, 2018). In Ghana it was shown that monthly income of shea nut harvesters can be 73% higher than the national average, suggesting that involvement in the shea nut industry can significantly boost poverty alleviation (Hatskevich et al., 2011). Further studies have shown that profitability for shea nut producers in Ghana could be improved by access to newer processing machinery and increased quality of the shea nuts butter (Tanko, 2017).

In Burkina Faso, research has shown that shea contributes the largest proportion of household income (12%) to the poorest households (Pouliot, 2012). In Benin the average contribution of shea nut to household income is only 2.8% (Schreckenberg, 2004). Research suggested that shea nut collection and processing should not be relied upon as a poverty alleviation method, but should be considered as a way for households to diversify their livelihood strategy and decrease their vulnerability to food insecurity and climate variability (Pouliot, 2012).

Despite the importance and economic potential of shea harvesting and processing in many African countries, data availability for harvesting and production at the global level is very limited if not completely lacking as in the case of shea butter. FAOSTAT database is the only relevant source providing global estimates for shea nuts. The figure below shows the global production trend in the last ten years.

Results of the trade analysis of suggests that deletion of the original HS code 120792 (“Shea nuts “”karite nuts””, whether or not broken”) into a non-species-specific code (HS120799) in 2002 caused reporting differences among exporting countries/territories. Due to this imbalance, data were downloaded from the Trade Map database, which allows for specific searches into NTL (National Tariff Line) codes, which are extra digits that countries/territories add to the HS codes to specify products further. Major exporters of shea nuts were identified from FAOSTAT and data were downloaded for all country/territory specific codes between 2007 and 2017. A full breakdown of the codes downloaded can be found in Table 1 (see the Metadata section). This is unlikely to be a full dataset as there are almost certainly more exporters of shea products who have not created specific NTL code for shea.

From the trade data collected, a total of 14,000,000 tonnes of shea nuts have been traded between 2007-2017 from six countries which had shea specific HS codes (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Nigeria). The largest exporter of shea nuts was Ghana which exported a total of 11,486,465 tonnes equating to 82% of all shea nuts traded globally. The smallest exporter from the available data was Nigeria (2,629 tonnes), but it is likely that their actual exports are much larger, but possibly reported under an unknown HS Code (Figure 2 Heatmap showing the largest exporters of shea nut between 2007 and 2017 and a table showing the exporters and the total weight (in tonnes) exported between 2007 and 2017.). Exports were reported to 45 different countries/territories with 85% of exports going to Denmark (Figure 3 Heatmap showing the largest importers of shea nut between 2007 and 2017 and a table showing the top ten importers and the total weight (in tonnes) imported between 2007 and 2017). There appear to be large amount of trade in shea nuts between exporting countries/territories as five of the top 10 importers of shea nuts are also range states for the Shea Tree.

The trade data presented here illuminates a broader issue relating to monitoring trade in medicinal and aromatic plant species (especially ones that are wild collected). Many of the customs codes (HS codes) used for reporting global trade are very general and include multiple species under a single code. This does not allow for species-specific resolution when attempting to monitor trade levels, which in turn could lead to the unsustainable levels of trade in wild medicinal and aromatic plants going unnoticed.

Sustainability Issues: Much of the sustainability issues relating to shea nut harvesting a processing surround the resilience of the Shea Trees to climate change. Some studies have reported reductions in tree density and species decline in the African Sahel, which incorporates a large portion of the range of the Shea Tree (Gonzalez, Tucker, & Sy, 2012). More infrequent rainfall and increasing temperatures have already led to negative impacts on shea nut harvesting in Burkina Faso (Venturini, Haworth, Coudel, Alonso, & Simonet, 2016).

Land management has also been shown to have an effect on the regeneration of Shea Trees. A higher proportion of mature trees were found in old fallows and large numbers of saplings were found in new fallow areas, whereas tree density in agricultural land was found to be very low in both Uganda and Benin (Aleza et al., 2015; Byakagaba, Eilu, Okullo, Tumwebaze, & Mwavu, 2011). These results suggest that land conversion for agriculture could influence the sustainability of shea nut harvesting.

Concerns have also been raised about the environmental cost of shea nut processing. Traditional processing methods require a roasting and a boiling stage, both of which require firewood to be used as biomass. In Ghana, it was shown that fuelwood use for shea production resulted in significant declines in carbon stocks across different land uses (Jasaw et al., 2017).

It is also clear, that without a dedicated customs code (HS code), it is difficult to monitor trends in global trade which is important to know absolute amounts of a given product that is traded.

Figure 2. Heatmap showing the largest exporters of shea nut between 2007 and 2017 and a table showing the exporters and the total weight (in tonnes) exported between 2007 and 2017.

Figure 3. Heatmap showing the largest importers of shea nut between 2007 and 2017 and a table showing the top ten importers and the total weight (in tonnes) imported between 2007 and 2017.

Reference classifications used for this brief are the Central Product Classification (CPC 2.1) expanded for agriculture and the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS 2017). 

The FAO expansion of the CPC 2.1 for agriculture adds detail at the lower level of standard CPC 2.1 (5digits) with supplementary codes on crops, livestock & derived products. One of this supplementary code identifies Sheanuts.

Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS 2017)

Table 1 National HS codes reported by the main shea nut exporting countries/territories between 2007 and 2017.

Sorrenti, S., Muir, G, Heral, E., Drinkwater, E., Timoshyna, A. 2020.  Rome. FAO.

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