Nigeria has announced a six-month ban on the export of raw shea nuts from which many beauty creams are made. The move is aimed at making the trade more lucrative as Nigeria is losing out by not producing much shea butter locally.
The country produces nearly 40% of the world's annual crop, but it only accounts for 1% of the $6.5bn (£4.8bn) global market - a situation Vice-President Kashim Shettima described as 'unacceptable'.
Harvested fruit from shea nut trees have to be crushed, roasted and boiled to extract their oil to produce the shea butter used in cosmetics.
The butter is also used in the food industry in the production of some sweets like chocolate and ice creams - and in pharmaceuticals too. Shea trees grow in the wild from West to East Africa - a vast strip known as the 'shea belt'. Small-scale farmers, often women, also plant and harvest them in these areas.
Shettima said the temporary ban would enable Nigeria to move from being an exporter of the raw nuts to a global supplier of refined shea products. 'It is about industrialisation, rural transformation, gender empowerment and expanding Nigeria's global trade footprint,' the vice-president stated during the announcement in Abuja.
The short-term aim, he added, was to see Nigeria's earnings from the fruit of the shea nut trees grow from $65m to $300m annually. Nigeria Agriculture Minister Abubakar Kyari indicated that the nation produces about 350,000 tonnes annually, with approximately 25% of that disappearing across borders in unregulated trade.
Dr. Ahmed Ismail, an agriculture expert, highlighted that much of the harvest comes from villages where local farmers often struggle due to a lack of regulation. He noted that many farmers are unaware of the true market value of their crop and are frequently exploited.
According to Ismail, this temporary ban is a necessary step towards enhancing local income and ensuring fair wages for farmers in the industry.
