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THE PEOPLE
Shea is picked, carried, boiled, dried and cracked before anyone in our trade sees it. Almost all of that work is done by women.
The shea season runs through the months when farm work is scarce, which is precisely why gathering matters. For many households in the savanna belt it is the income that covers school costs and carries a family through to the next harvest. It is not a supplementary activity, and treating it as one is how buyers end up short of supply.
The work is heavy. Nuts are collected from under wild trees across long distances, carried back, boiled, dried in the sun and cracked by hand. By the time a sack reaches a collection point, several days of labour are in it. How we buy.
We buy from organised groups rather than from individuals, because groups can aggregate enough volume to be worth a journey, hold a price line in a negotiation, and be paid in a way that is transparent to their members. Where a group is well run, the difference in quality is visible before anything is tested.
A price fixed at the point of sale gives the buyer all the leverage. Agreeing beforehand lets a group decide whether gathering is worth it while there is still time to decide.
Thirty-day terms are normal in trade and useless to a household that gathered the crop last week. We settle at the collection point.
Where quality held, we come back the following season. Continuity is what turns a transaction into something either side can plan around.
A group's crop stays identifiable rather than being mixed on arrival, which is what lets us tell a buyer where a consignment came from. What we record.
If you are buying from us and need detail on how a lot was sourced, ask. We would rather answer than be taken on trust.