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Quality Standards Regional Inter-Governmental and Expert Consultation
on
30 May to 1 June 2006
with technical oversight from the Inter-Governmental
Group on Oilseeds, Oilseeds and Fats (IGGOOF)
16 April 2006
The proposed project will bring together policy makers and technical personnel from national governments, sub-regional, regional and international inter-governmental institutions in order to develop and elaborate a set of regionally-harmonised product quality standards for shea kernel and shea butter originating from sub-Saharan Africa. Implementing Partners The Ghana Standards Board (GSB) is the designated coordinating institution for development and harmonization of regional standards under the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Africa Regional Standards Organisation (ARSO). The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) is charged with development and elaboration of regionally-consistent product quality standards for shea kernel and shea butter to serve as a basis for establishment of an internationally-recognised product certification system, with technical supervision by the Inter-Governmental Group on Oilseeds, Oilseeds and Fats (IGGOOF) and with funding by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC). Timeline The meeting builds upon an institutional framework established under Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) project No. CFC/FIGOOF/23, particularly a initial regional consultative meeting and expert consultation implemented by ICRAF at Bamako in October 2004, and a sub-regional inter-governmental review implemented by the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) at Ouagadougou in August 2005, with participation by ICRAF and the Ghana Standards Board. The proposed project will entail a three-day consultation of national standards agencies of 10 countries common to UEMOA and ECOWAS, i.e. Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, and Togo, with international and regional institutional representation by the FAO-IGGOOF, UNIDO; sub-regional bodies including ECOWAS, UEMOA, the Economic Community of Central African States (ACCAS), the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA); and regional bodies ARSO and the African Union. In order to facilitate regional collaboration, observers will be invited from Central African and and East African producer countries (Cameroon and Uganda respectively). Observers will also be invited from the private sector, including international industry and the certifying bodies currently or potentially involved in certification of shea products. Prior to the meeting, ICRAF and the Ghana Standards Board will: 1. Collect all extant technical information on shea kernel and shea butter product quality from the 16 producer countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Togo and Uganda; 2. Assemble this existing data into a coherent format from which a set of regionally-consistent and harmonized product quality standards will be developed; and 3. Elaborate draft regional standards for shea kernel and shea butter for review during the meeting, and subsequently by relevant member countries (from June through September 2006). The anticipated immediate results of the meeting include 1. Constitution of a regional technical committee drawn from the national standards bodies represented, consisting of representatives drawn from all member countries, through the sub-regional institutions (ECOWAS, UEMOA, CEEAC and COMESA) with a mandate to:
As indicated above, the results of this work will be presented and reviewed, discussed and finalized at a second regional inter-governmental consultation to be held during March 2007. Institutional Representation International Regional Sub-Regional National Certifying Bodies Private Sector
Background Shea Products: Quality and Market Prospects The Shea Butter Tree (Vitellaria paradoxa,syn. Butyrospermum paradoxum) is a nutritional and economic resource of great importance across 16 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Unfortunately, issues of product quality, and the lack of common norms and standards within and between the producing countries and at the international level, greatly constrain the development of this important resource. Although an estimated 70 percent of the shea kernels collected each year across Africa are consumed in the home as shea butter, a significant proportion of the annual harvest is currently under-utilised due to issues of resource management, transport constraints, and by limited profitability to the primary producers of shea kernel, and the rural processors of shea butter. The shea butter currently processed by artisanal methods appropriate to the rural production areas remains highly variable in terms of quality. Issues of poor and inconsistent product quality control greatly limit the market options of primary producers across the shea zone, and the profitability of village-level shea processing. Though major industrial importers of shea kernel state that they would prefer, in principle, to import more shea butter directly from African producers, persistent problems of quality control have greatly constrained progress toward this objective, and have resulted in lower prices and reduced returns to the primary producers. Beyond the choice of processing technology, quality is first and foremost a management issue, best addressed through effective rural extension training programs covering aspects of post-harvest processing, extraction and post-extraction processing. As the quality of the final product (shea butter) is largely determined by the quality of the raw material – which, in turn, depends fundamentally on the time and attention invested by the primary producer - to improve product quality on a long-term sustainable basis, market conditions must allow for adequate remuneration to producers and processors based primarily on product quality. The profitability of shea processing to the primary producer must be reinforced and increased in order to provide an economic incentive for investment of time by the producer to address the technical aspects of production which determine product quality, to reinforce product quality control during processing, and to sustain the product certification system beginning at the local (producer) level. Though shea products of superior quality can (and sometimes do) command higher prices at all levels of the market, there has been no consistent system by which quality and other aspects of product (such as origin) may be reliably and credibly determined for the benefit of importers and other industrial end-users. Uncertainty and lack of transparency along the supply chain have tended to perpetuate a market structure based on low product quality and minimal returns to producers. CFC/FIG/OOF/23 : Certification of Improved Shea Products for Africa The Projet d'Appui Technique à la Filière Karité or ProKarité project, CFC/FIGOOF/23 (Improving Product Quality and Market Access for Shea Butter Originating from Sub-Saharan Africa), was initiated by the Common Fund for Commodities, an inter-governmental financial institution existing within the framework of the United Nations, as a means of enhancing the socio-economic development and living standards of the primary producers of shea kernel and shea butter across Africa. With additional support from the Netherlands Government and technical backstopping from the Inter-Governmental Group on Oilseeds, Oils and Fats of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the ProKarité project is currently being implemented by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). From the pilot project area of Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, ProKarité will provide a platform from which ICRAF will engage participation and collaboration from institutions and individuals across the African shea zone, including 16 countries extending from Senegal to Ethiopia and Uganda. A primary objective of the ProKarité project is to establish a regional and international consensus on issues of shea product quality, with reference both to shea kernel and shea butter, as a basis for enhanced traceability along the supply chain. In this regard, the project has established a dialogue with the most significant industrial buyers of shea kernel, and is working to consolidate technical partnerships of mutual interest to industry and the producers, in order to develop and elaborate common parameters, grades and standards of product quality for shea kernel and shea butter, in close consultation between regional stakeholder institutions and international industry. Based on applied research on post-harvest processing methods which determine product quality, the project is developing training curricula to enhance added product value through increased product quality, improved processing techniques, the use and maintenance of improved processing equipment, and 'best practices' of shea butter production from harvest through packaging. Further training programs, to be implemented in partnership with national institutions and community-based organizations, will reinforce the productive and professional capacity, technical and management skills of rural producers and rural producer marketing associations. To serve the primary producers and rural processors of shea kernel
and shea butter across the African shea zone, the project is working
to establish a regional network of practitioners, from producers
and producer groups to support organizations. Participants at the meeting included representatives of national
institutions concerned with product quality and commerce, including
National Applied Research Institutes (NARS Institutions), National
Standards Boards, A total of sixteen countries were represented at the meeting, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Togo and Uganda. In addition to the representatives of technical institutions and government bodies, practitioners drawn from national marketing associations (of producers), national and international industry also participated. The consultative regional meeting addressed key topics of project focus, in order that common issues, concerns and technical constraints may be identified, prioritized and targeted for resolution. Discussion and adoption of common parameters and techniques of analysis, product grades and standards was undertaken in support of the regional product certification system to be established through the project. In summary, the consultative regional meeting was a means of:
Following presentation of the Working Group conclusions and recommendations, and prior to the closing of the meeting, the following ‘resolutions’ were put forward by the participants in order to summarise the results of the meeting, though there was not sufficient time to adequately debate nor vote on the same: 1. The stakeholders of the shea sector must be organised, first
at the national level, then at the regional level; ICRAF is requested
to facilitate this process, at least at the regional level. UEMOA Standards Development Building upon the results of the Regional Consultative Meeting, ICRAF initiated a technical partnership with the West Africa Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), the 8-country sub-regional grouping comprised of Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin and Guinea Bissau, in order to propose, develop and harmonise sub-regional product quality standards for shea products. During May and June 2005, ICRAF supported the development of a quality standard for unrefined shea butter, both due to the relatively straightforward technical nature of the task (as compared to shea kernel), and in order to establish a grading system for unrefined shea butter based on a range of qualities which should be valued according to a corresponding range of prices (which is not currently the case). The new product quality grading system will provide shea producers of the UEMOA countries with an economic incentive to invest additional time and effort in the critical post-harvest processing steps necessary to obtain improved and uniform quality products to meet market requirements. Accordingly, the ProKarité national project manager for Burkina Faso, Dr Brehima Diawara, was engaged along with his assistant, Dr Ganou Leguet, and Mme Mame Mbodj Sine Ndiaye of the Agence Sénégalaise de Normalisation (ASN) to work with the project coordinator and Dr Steve Maranz, ICRAF post-doctorate and specialist in the chemistry of shea products, to develop a draft UEMOA standard for unrefined shea butter. The standard was presented to the UEMOA Secretariat in June for distribution to all UEMOA standards bodies for review. From 29 to 31 August, UEMOA convened a meeting at Ouagadougou for delegates from each of the standards agencies of the UEMOA countries, each with a counterpart drawn from the private sector or NARS based on the recommendations of the project. Beyond the (very substantial) UEMOA financial support for this meeting, the project contributed funds to involve a larger group of stakeholders in the review, including an official representative of the Ghana Standards Board (GSB), Ms Prudence Asamoah-Bonti, the officer responsible for development of agro-alimentary standards. Full simultaneous translation was provided by the project in order to ensure effective participation by Ms Bonti. Beyond the unquestioned (if informal) preeminence of Ghana as a supplier of shea products to international industry, the GSB is the designated coordinating institution charged with development and harmonization of product quality standards for ECOWAS and the African Union through the Africa Regional Standards Organisation (ARSO) and the African Union (AU). Thus, in order to develop truly regional (and thus international) standards for shea products, ICRAF and the GSB will work together in collaboration with the national standards bodies, sub-regional, regional and international institutions in order to establish a full ECOWAS and ARSO standard for unrefined shea butter based on the UEMOA standard, and to develop an ECOWAS and ARSO standard for shea kernel in collaboration with UEMOA. This process will conclude with a fully regional and inter-governmental consultation to finalise regional standards for all 16 producing countries during March 2007. The Ghana Standards Board (GSB) is currently undertaking a national review of the Ghana standard for shea butter, to include a product grading system similar to the one developed by UEMOA for unrefined shea butter. The GSB is also working to establish a draft national standard for shea kernel to serve as a basis for sub-regional and regional elaboration. Meanwhile, ICRAF through the ProKarité project is working to consolidate the results of its applied research on processing methods and product quality in order to define a set of standard operating procedures whereby rural shea processors may obtain products of standard quality according to the new grading system developed and established as a component of the UEMOA standard for unrefined shea butter, and will establish a production management system to reinforce the capacities of rural producer groups to meet the quality requirements of national, regional and international markets. On a regional level, the project will continue its collaborative applied research on the chemical parameters shea tree products in order to define the characteristics of specific shea provenances by origin. Results of this study will be posted for public access on the Vitellaria Database, online at http://www.prokarite.org/vitellaria-dbase-EN/index.html - - - - - - - For more information on the Regional Inter-Governmental and Expert
Consultation on Establishment and Harmonisation of Regional African
Standards Prudence Asamoah-Bonti Eliot Masters
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