ProKarité : Certified Origin, Certified Quality Shea Butter direct from Africa In partnership with producers across Africa, the ProKarité project brings transparency of source to shea butter supply, and a science-based approach to quality assurance and product certification of shea butter and shea kernel originating directly from Africa. Introduction A lack of product quality standards and technical proficiency of producers has greatly constrained market opportunities for rural producers of shea kernel and shea butter, particularly in Mali which has long suffered from a reputation as a source of poor-quality shea kernel and shea butter. Fortunately, this situation has recently been changing for the better, and rural producers of shea products stand to benefit more from newly emerging market opportunities for higher-quality products. With support from the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) and technical backstopping from the FAO Inter-governmental Group on Oilseeds, Oils and Fats under project CFC/FIGOOF/23 (commonly known as ProKarité), a decentralized extension model for serving the technical needs of rural producers has been developed in Mali, as well as Senegal, Burkina Faso and Niger. Regional product quality standards have been developed at the inter-governmental level, but the project ended before a set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) could be developed whereby rural producers may be equipped to take advantage of the market opportunities represented by these new standards through technical training and extension. However, there is need for consolidation and for ‘scaling up’ technical outputs obtained through the ProKarité project at the national as well as the regional level, for the benefit of the estimated 5 million rural households across Africa who depend on the nutritional and economic resources of the Shea butter tree. In the interests of the primary producer at the regional level, key stakeholders of the ProKarité project have come together to form the Association ProKarité International (ProKarité). Registered as an international organization with the Government of Mali, ProKarité is a non-profit implementing agency serving the technical requirements of rural producers of shea kernel and butter in support of increased market opportunities for their higher-quality and certified products. ProKarité is currently developing a set of national projects to advance the interests of the primary producers of shea kernel and shea butter across Africa, beginning in Mali with ‘Improving Product Quality and Market Opportunities for Rural Producers of Shea Kernel and Shea Butter’, 2007-2010. This proposed national project will define a set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as global public goods, and will undertake training of rural producers of shea kernel and shea butter in improved processing methodologies whereby they may obtain more remunerative returns from their products. In Mali, the zones of intervention include the Points Filière Karité (PFK)of Siby, Kolondiéba, Zantiébougou, Diola (2 PFK) and San, comprised of over 22,000 rural women. The PFK serve as focal points and infrastructural facilities whereby shea products of higher quality can find better market opportunities both nationally and internationally. Under the project, a national consortium of stakeholders in the shea sector were brought together by IER and the MPFEF, comprising a national technical committee on the shea resource and its utilization at the level of the primary producers. These rural women producers were brought together to form an umbrella association of 34,000 women drawn from rural producers organizations, registered with the Government of Mali as the Association Sido, named after the Bambara word for a grove of shea trees. At the national level, great opportunities currently exist for rural producers of shea kernel and butter, as after long years of reputedly low quality products, Mali is now emerging into the regional and international spotlight as the ‘last frontier’ of supply for the West Africa region. Fortunately, the dynamics of the national filière are not already stacked against the rural producer through structural inequities, as is the case in some neighboring countries. The proposed project will consolidate technical gains obtained in the six PFK of Mali, will extend these impacts and opportunities to rural producers in other parts of the country, and will allow local and national stakeholders develop in partnership a more comprehensive and concerted filière in which the economic interests of the primary producers – rural women and their households – are fully served and reinforced over the long term. Primary stakeholders and beneficiaries of the proposed project are an estimated 34,000 primary producers of shea kernel and shea butter in the rural production areas of Mali and their households, raising the living standards of an estimated total of 272,000 individuals on a long-term sustainable basis. Engaging Producers in Production Management and Quality Monitoring In the project countries of Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and in Ghana, Sudan and Uganda, producer groups organized around designated production centers have been identified for technical outreach and monitoring of production for quality assurance and product certification. At each production center, producer groups are provided with technical assistance in order to reinforce a harmonized system of production management, with attention to product quality control, and documentation of origin, production methods and the date of each processing step and commercial transaction from harvest to final point of sale. International Certification of Shea Products : at www.sheacert.org Shea butter of certified origin and quality is currently being produced in Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Uganda and Sudan. Each batch of certified shea butter carries a unique code which enables consumers to learn where the product originated, how and when it was made, who benefited from its sale, and the chemical qualities of the product as defined by its point of origin and processing methods used.
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