Description of the production process with photos:  

Our Shea butter is handmade. That is why it is also called artisan shea butter. Artisan shea butter has two big advantages: 

1.    Independent experts consider artesan shea butter for being of higher quality than shea butter that has been produced by with the help of machines or through industrial production. More and more, this opinion is shared by experts of the cosmetic industry. Through direct comparison I have made the experience that handmade shea butter smells and looks better.  Also, on the European and the North American market you can perceive the differences: Test it. One can only imagine what improved skin care qualities can be derived from that fact that shea butter is handmade. 

2.    As the production of artisan shea butter is the speciality of women groups, these groups have a unique opportunity to get a competitive advantage. This advantage could help to improve the income situation of a significant part of the Northern Ghanaian population.  However, I order to improve the income situation significantly the buyers of the shea butter have to pay fair prices. 
 

Now we get to the description of the different production steps that lead to Shea WaLe Sheabutter 
 

1.    The Shea Fruits are harvested each year between April and June. The outer green fruit flesh can be eaten directly. It is extremely sweet and what stays is the shea nut.  

2.    Several times the nuts are than washed with hot water.  

3.    The cleaned nuts are dried in the sun.  

4.    The bad nuts are separated from the good ones. This is a very important step. If this step is not been done properly the laboratory test will get reveal high FFA (Free Fatty Acids) results. This would be a sign of low quality shea butter. This is widespread in mainstream and industrial shea butter as the selection of nuts is costly and hard to supervise. In contrary to mainstream and industrial shea butter while producing Shea WaLe Sheabutter only high quality nuts were used. An FFA level of less than 1% is the consequence which is excellent (please see the laboratory results for Shea Wale Shea Butter).  

5.    The good nuts are than grinded by a machine and prepared for roasting.

The further description is being worked on. Please be patient. 

Grinding of the nuts