2023-06-15 00:06:28
Rising cocoa prices should greatly benefit the shea sector this year. Good news as the harvest begins in West Africa, the world’s production basin.
The harvest of shea nuts has only just begun, but the marketing campaign which will begin by the end of the summer looks promising. Because the demand for shea and therefore its price is closely linked to the cocoa butter market because shea butter is used as a substitute in chocolate products. When the price of cocoa butter rises, that of shea butter follows the trend.
This bullish climate is fueled by stocks, which are quite limited this year. The processors who are at work at the start of the campaign are paying the price and paying very high prices for supplies.
Insecurity weighs on the Malian and Burkinabé harvest
The fear of seeing production decline in Burkina Faso and Mali due to insecurity can also weigh in the balance, since these two countries are the main exporters. In the event of insecurity, as has been seen in Nigeria, women move away and tend to abandon gathering in the forest and bush and limit themselves to shea which grows in the fields.
In this context driven by the rise in cocoa prices which exceed 3,000 dollars per ton, the price of marketed shea kernels should exceed 200 CFA francs per kilo in this year 2023, according to the N’Kalo agricultural information service. A price twice as high as five years ago, but still well below what other crops can offer.
Even if the signals are good, the prices actually paid will also depend on the strategy of the two heavyweights in the sector, the Danish AAK and the American Bunge. “ They have demonstrated in the past that they are capable of agreeing not to increase their purchase prices locally. This slows down the transmission of the rise in prices to the producer “, explains Pierre Ricau analyst of N’kalo.
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