Madame Adana Maimouna heads up a 1200-member shea butter cooperative society in Nahouri province, Burkina Faso. Every member of her cooperative is a woman.

The shea butter sector is dominated by women, who make up 98 percent of the entrepreneurs within the supply chain in countries across West Africa. According to Adana, the income women earn from working in the shea butter sector allows them both to support their families and to contribute to the development of their communities. Since the adoption of the Codex Regional Standard for Unrefined Shea Butter (Africa) (CXS 325R-2017), however, things have got even better!

Burkina Faso has been working hard to regulate the shea butter sector. Following its creation in 2012, the country's standards-setting agency, Agence Burkinabé de Normalisation, de Métrologie et de la Qualité (ABNORM), introduced a certification and traceability system for the entire shea butter value chain. With the establishment of a new Codex standard in 2017, ABNORM took steps to align Burkina Faso’s national standards with Codex, reinforcing the country’s commitment to international trade and consumer safety, which eventually led to the establishment of a national certification of shea butter in 2021.

“ABNORM provided us with technical support,” says Adana, “which equipped us with the knowhow to obtain national quality certification, which has been inspired by the Codex regional standard.” As a consequence, Adana says that she and her fellow shea butter producers have improved the quality of their product, and they have also improved their hygiene standards so the shea butter they produce is safe and of good quality. “This has opened up markets to us,” continues Adana. “We have participated in high-level fairs in the subregion and across the African region as a whole. This has expanded our address book of potential customers by making our products and their quality better known.”

Burkina Faso’s participation in the development of this and other standards has benefitted millions of women and has contributed to national economies in West Africa – and was made possible through training and awareness raising under a Codex Trust Fund project.

“This is the kind of news we are excited to hear from any of our Members, and especially our CTF-supported Members! Codex standards have the potential to positively impact lives and livelihoods and it is clear that the Codex Regional Standard for Unrefined Shea Butter (Africa) (CXS 325R-2017) is playing a part in improving the lot of women across the subregion of West Africa,” said Patrick Sekitoleko, Food Standards Officer in the Codex Alimentarius Secretariat. “This standard is one of the Codex tools used by shea butter producers, irrespective of the scale production, to demonstrate that the product is safe for human consumption and can be traded.”

Burkina Faso is second only to Nigeria in terms of worldwide shea production, which is worth over USD 2 billion globally.

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