The price of a kilo of shea kernels can now double depending on which side of a border it is sold. In Ghana, it trades at between 575 and 675 CFA francs. In Burkina Faso, it tops out at around 275 to 290, and it barely exceeds 310 in Benin or 320 in Nigeria. That gap sums up the 2026-2027 season now getting under way in West Africa. For two years, governments have piled up export bans and taxes to keep the raw material at home, and the regional market has fragmented as a result.
The rules differ from one country to the next. Mali, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire maintain a total ban on exporting raw kernels. Burkina Faso, which closed its borders in September 2024, reopened them last May under conditions: licensed exporters must hand a quarter of their volumes to local processors and pay a levy of 200 CFA francs on every kilo exported. Togo has just allowed shipments again, subject to prior authorisation and a tax of 100 CFA francs per kilo. Benin chose a high export tax over a ban. Ghana announced a gradual block on raw nut exports back in 2025 but has yet to enforce it.
For traders, the problem is less how strict the rules are than how unstable they are. Operators remain dependent on authorisations that can be announced « overnight, » says Anaïs Chotard, an analyst at the consultancy N’kalô, quoted by Ecofin Agency. That makes it risky to finance a buying season or sign a delivery contract.
Côte d’Ivoire shows what these governments are trying to do. The Cotton, Cashew and Shea Council launched the season on August 14 with a farmgate price of 250 CFA francs a kilo for well dried and sorted kernels. The price rises to 275 at buyers’ warehouses and 305 at the factory gate. Exports across land borders are banned, and purchases are reserved for processing units throughout the season.
On paper, the strategy is working. West African shea butter exports reached 27,951 tonnes in the first quarter of 2026, up 27 percent on a year earlier and the highest quarterly level in five years. Over the same period, sales of raw kernels fell 25 percent to 84,705 tonnes. European manufacturers are now buying more butter than nuts, N’kalô notes. Global demand remains solid, driven by cosmetics and above all by the food industry, where shea is used as a substitute for cocoa butter.
The results look less clear on the ground. The region exported about 85,000 tonnes of butter in 2025, while installed processing capacity is probably far higher. In other words, many factories are running below their potential. And where borders are closed, the women who gather the nuts face only a limited number of buyers, which weighs on the prices they are offered. In the savannah belt, collecting and drying shea nuts supports millions of rural women. They are the first to feel it when the price per kilo falls.
Price gaps between neighbouring countries also encourage informal trade. When kernels sell for twice as much across the border, trucks easily find another route despite the bans.
The season now depends on political decisions as much as on the harvest. A lifted ban or a new tax can change prices across the whole subregion in a matter of days. Collectors, traders and factories are therefore starting the season without knowing on what terms they will be able to sell.