Exports of shea products, including butter used in food and cosmetics, have increased significantly, from 25 billion in 2016 to more than 30 billion in 2019, according to a report by the African Development Bank (AfDB). .

According to this report published in mid-July, the African Development Bank (AfDB) specifies that this growth is the result of the support project for the integrated development of the shea sector for the economic empowerment of women (PADIFK) implemented in Burkina Faso.

This project has improved access to credit for the various stakeholders in the collection and processing of shea from banks as well as access to markets, thus increasing the value of exported products on the international market.

"The project has been of great benefit to us, in that we have produced in quantity, quality and sold more organic shea butter for the 2019‑2020 campaign" underlined a president of a production association of Shea.

"The changes made in our activities are the elimination of manual churning by mechanical churning, the reduction of working time by at least 15%, the automation of tasks. In addition, with the filter, we obtain a butter that meets the standards on impurities and with the oil and cream filler, we have a labor time savings of around 30%" she added.

Burkina Faso has been exporting shea products such as butter for several years to countries such as France, Ghana, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Germany for butter.

As for almonds, they are exported to Denmark, Ghana, Togo and India, cosmetic products to Togo, France and the United States.

With a total annual production that varies between 400,000 and 600,000 tonnes, Burkina is the world's second largest producer of almonds, behind Nigeria.