Opportunities for Shea-Producing SMEs in West Africa: Export Market Access Guides

TULIP produced a series of six practical export manuals for the Partnership for Natural Ingredients, providing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in the shea sector across four West African countries with the information needed to access six different export markets: South Africa, Kenya, Angola, South Korea, Japan, and the United States.

Shea is a strategically important product for West Africa. The shea belt spans more than twenty countries across the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa, and shea butter and its derivatives are used extensively in the cosmetics, food, and pharmaceutical industries globally. For the women who collect and process shea nuts — who form the backbone of the shea value chain in countries such as Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Côte d’Ivoire — shea represents a critical source of income. Improving SMEs’ ability to export shea products to higher-value markets can therefore have significant development and gender equality implications, supporting female economic empowerment and rural livelihoods across the region.

However, accessing diverse export markets presents significant challenges for small shea producers and processors, who often lack the information and institutional support needed to navigate the complex array of import requirements, standards, and certification demands that apply in different markets. These include phytosanitary and food safety requirements, cosmetics regulation and ingredient labelling rules, customs documentation and tariff classification, and private sector standards and certifications required by major buyers in target markets.

The manuals produced by TULIP addressed these challenges by providing practical, accessible guidance tailored to each target market. Each manual covered the key regulatory requirements for shea imports in the relevant market, including applicable product standards, labelling and packaging requirements, import documentation, and tariff rates applicable to different types of shea products. The manuals also provided information on how to identify and approach potential buyers, the role of trade associations and promotional agencies, and the certifications and quality standards most valued by buyers in each market.

The manuals were designed to be used directly by SME owners and managers, providing actionable, market-specific information in a format that does not require specialist trade or legal knowledge. By providing this targeted market intelligence, the guides aimed to help shea-producing SMEs overcome a critical information barrier to market access and to build the export capabilities of a sector of significant importance for West African development.