Why East African Shea Butter Is So Expensive | So Expensive | Business Insider
[Music] one way to make shea butter involves pounding and grinding dry shea nuts by hand [Music] another way requires two people to push a lever as a cold press machine turns shay nut oil into a creamy pale yellow butter regardless of the way it's done producing shea butter is tedious work and depending on how it's made it can cost over 50 dollars a kilo but this isn't just any shea butter this is east african shea butter the most expensive version of the commonly known product so what makes east african shea butter different and why is it so expensive when someone hears shea butter it's likely they think of the west african variety but in east africa a different kind of shea nut grows a subspecies called nylotica the west african paradoxa tree is farmed so it grows more abundantly but nylotica isn't typically planted it grows in the wild in east african countries like uganda and sudan east african shea butter can cost more than double the west african alternative that's because it's easier to spread and absorbs quickly into the skin this is anaelotika very low melting point like you see when i spread it easily melts and within a few minutes it will have sunk into my skin pores but when we come to our west african shea butter when you spread this is how it turns out it will remain on top because of the waxy texture that makes nylotika more desirable for cosmetics companies which use it for butters oils and soaps and according to lucy this is one of the reasons demand for east african shea butter has grown both locally and abroad in uganda nylotica producers are trying to meet the growing demand industry [Music] and her peers have been harvesting shea fruits since 5 a.m they're part of the corner adware moya women's group a self-help group for women in uganda in uganda shea producers are primarily organized women's groups like this they start their day early so they can pick the best fruits before other groups come aquilo and the other harvesters pick the fruits off the ground once they've already fallen then they remove and eat the fruit to reveal the shea nut they eat it because they won't need it to make the butter and it's delicious quality control starts here with only the best shay nuts moving on to processing these are grade a nuts which are whole undamaged and untouched by insects the nuts are then dried in the sun for a few days to reduce moisture next they're carefully cracked and the kernels are dried again for two weeks now ochello can make the shea butter it's usually done one of two ways by hand or by machine both requiring heavy manual labor making shea butter by hand is an intensive process after the nuts dry the second time producers heat ash over a fire for 30 minutes then they roast the shea nuts in the ashes for another 45 minutes stirring constantly this helps prevent mold and deactivates free fatty acids or ffas which are harmful to the body but they have to be careful too much heat could lead to a dark oil with high rather than deactivated ffa levels then the women spread the nuts on the ground to cool off [Music] producers grind the nuts three times they take turns pounding then muddle the mixture further between rocks and finally refine the mixture in a mil this creates a paste which they pour into hot water [Music] here the oil they need for the butter separates from the paste [Music] the oil is removed and packaged for sale locally where a kilo costs over five dollars it's mainly used for cooking but locals also use it on their skin and while it's still pricier than west african shea butter this heat processed butter is a more affordable alternative to cold pressed nylotica one kilo of cold pressed east african shea butter can reach 12 dollars in uganda and when exported it's over four times that price that's because cold pressed shea butter is more refined it's the cleanest way to extract the oil which preserves the nuts properties after harvesting drying and grinding the shea nuts producers place them in cloth bags and load them into a cold press machine they've had this machine since 1997 [Music] to use it two people need to push each side of the lever in a circle pressing and releasing the oil from the fat in the shea nuts when left to rest the oil hardens into shea butter from nut to butter the whole process can take three weeks today producers prefer the cold press method because they can make bigger batches of high quality shea butter it can also enhance some of the butter's most desired properties studies of nylotica have found that it has significantly higher oleic acid content than west african shea butter it also has lower stearic acid content which contributes to the softness of the butter this is the west african shea butter with a high melting point and when it solidifies it's really hard harder textures are more difficult to integrate into cosmetics lucy says that's why nylotika has the upper hand in cosmetics her american buyers prefer it because it absorbs faster into the skin but nylotica has other special properties the demand at the moment is growing because of this content the olane vitamin e and then it also it has antioxidants that make it easy especially for cosmetics it has to have a healing factor within it this growing demand is being met with limited supply the supply is a little lower because the number of producers is still a bit low the shae tree fruits only once a year and producers are still figuring out how to bolt their harvests and while some efforts are underway to farm more shea trees the nuts are primarily harvested in the wild limiting producers further then there's deforestation according to the ugandan national forest authority the country has lost 63 of its tree cover in the past 25 years locals use the wood for charcoal firewood and timber but nylotica producers hope that as demand continues to grow and locals learn more about nylotika's value they'll work to preserve the trees and in turn scale up production of east african shea butter i believe if the marketing strategies are improved we shall have more sales more producers and the more the buyers of which the buyers are already out there
