"WOMEN'S GOLD"

An ancestral tradition

Shea plays a very important social and economic role in rural areas. The kernels and traditionally made butter are sold on the markets.

To obtain this butter, the fruit is gathered once it has fallen to the ground, in order to guarantee full maturity. The fruit is gathered from the bush exclusively by women, between May and August. The sweet fruit pulp is edible and children love it.

  

Once the fruit is brought back home, the women process it in several stages to obtain shea kernels: first, the fruit is rid of their pulp, then the nuts are boiled, dried in the sun and shelled. The kernels obtained are sun-dried again before being sold or transformed into butter. The kernels contain an average 50% fat.

"Women's gold" is an additional source of income for millions of women in rural Burkina Faso and gives them some economic independence (in particular to pay for their family's schooling and healthcare).