BLC ramps up shea production for confectionery and bakery with first African plant

08 Sep 2020 --- Bunge Loders Croklaan (BLC) has officially unveiled its first shea processing plant in Africa, pegged as the largest of its kind on the continent. Located in Tema, Ghana, the new facility is a fully automated solvent fractionation plant that processes raw shea butter made from locally collected and crushed shea nuts. Alongside this, the company is actively developing partnerships with local crushers, which in turn increases the holistic gains for local women’s cooperative groups.

“Shea ingredients can be used in many food and non-food applications. In food, it’s used primarily for the confectionery and bakery industry. Its most common use is as an ingredient in cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs) used in chocolate products. But it also performs well in bakery products like puff pastry and cakes. Other applications are cosmetics and ice cream, for example,” Dr. Hans Omvlee, Supply Chain & Trading Director at BLC, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

“Shea is a vegetable oil that has a very similar fat composition to that of cocoa butter. It is very well suited for blending with other vegetable fats and oils like palm and cocoa butter and it has many functional properties that can be used in different food applications.”

Shea, also recognized fondly by the locals as the ‘tree of life’, drove up demand for shea butter with a CAGR of 6.27 percent by value and 7.9 percent by volume until 2024, according to BLC.

“We’re not able to provide you specific capacity numbers, however what we can share is that we currently employ 73 employees in our Ghana facility. An additional 14 employees are based in Burkina Faso. The majority of employees, including management, at our Ghana facility are experienced and skilled Ghanaians,” Omvlee remarks.

Sustainable shea
Shea is a wild crop that grows in an area of Africa known as the “shea belt.” “The shea belt spans across many countries and each supply chain step – from nut to end product – has its own characteristics which makes it unique,” explains Omvlee.

Because shea nuts are a wild harvest crop rather than a farm or plantation-grown crop, there is no globally recognized sustainability certification for shea. “In line with our overall commitment toward responsible sourcing, we have taken several steps to certify our shea supply chain against globally recognized sustainability standards,” Omvlee notes.

In 2011, BLC asked the Rainforest Alliance (RFA) to audit its shea supply chain in West Africa based on the Sustainable Agricultural Network (SAN) standards evaluating environmental, social and economic aspects.

“The RFA report concluded that there were no sustainability hotspots identified in our supply chain and included recommendations for areas that would benefit from future attention. These recommendations were implemented. In 2014, RFA conducted a follow-up audit, which acknowledged that the recommendations from 2011 were actively implemented and again, no sustainability hotspots were identified,” highlights Omvlee.

New BLC shea processing plant in Tema, Ghana.In collaboration with the International Sustainability Carbon Certification system (ISCC) BLC developed a wild-crop certification for shea. “In 2015, our shea supply chain was the first in the industry to be successfully audited according to the ISCC. Certification body SGS conducted an on-site audit in West Africa and concluded that all sustainable and traceable criteria had been fulfilled,” says Omvlee.

BLC has also created a “Shea Dashboard,” an online platform that provides information about the traceability of its shea and progress in developing a sustainable shea supply chain. “The shea nuts we source are 100 percent traceable to country level, and it is our goal to extend our scope further to 100 percent traceable shea nuts at district level. More details on the traceability of our shea sourcing can be found on this dashboard,” details Omvlee.

As a result of climate change impacting livelihoods of communities in the Savanna ecological area, BLC has further made commitments toward reforestation and helping aid shea parkland restoration projects, alongside investment in energy-efficient stoves for the shea communities.

Where Life Grows  
The opening of the new facility coincides with the launch of the specialty oils and fats supplier’s “Where Life Grows” campaign, which operates with the aim of a resilient and sustainable shea supply chain across Africa. 

BLC’s campaign was set up three years ago with the objective to empower shea-collecting women, create socio-economic value in their communities and conserve and regenerate the shea landscape in the region. Sixteen million women in Africa living in rural communities and their families depend on the shea industry to financially support their households and contribute to their communities.

As a founding member of the Global Shea Alliance, BLC directly sources from female-led cooperatives. The company aims to support female shea collectors in its supply chain through leading programs that enhance the women’s safety and improve their physical well-being.

“This also includes investing in low-season alternative income-generating activities for the women in local communities to secure a more stable and diversified income,” notes Omvlee. “In 2016, BLC participated in a warehouse project in Ghana to construct and donate a warehouse to the local women. This warehouse is used to store kernels, giving the women the possibility to sell larger quantities and earn more per kg.”

“The dry storage conditions of the warehouse will also lead to better quality of the nuts and the warehouse can generate additional income by renting it out to store other crops off-season,” he adds.

Shea performs well in bakery products like puff pastry and cakes.BLC has also contributed to programs designed to increase the value and quality of the collected crop, such as building warehouses and developing partnerships with local crushers, which in turn increases the financial gain for the women’s cooperative groups. 

Together with the Global Shea Alliance, BLC has led three-year training programs to develop female leadership and increase the quality and yield of the shea nuts. “BLC also supports training in business development and Good Agricultural Practices for approximately 3,000 women in Benin via one of its partners, Fludor Benin,” says Omvlee.

In addition, BLC funds child education projects, such as in the construction of a school in northern Ghana and financially supporting SOS Children Villages in Burkina Faso.

“BLC also provides tooling for shea collectors to mitigate any physical strain during shea nut collection, the shea roller tool,” notes Omvlee.

Consumers often look to brand storytelling platforms, not only to weigh taste and quality credentials, but also the sustainability and human empowerment efforts of companies. This is outlined by Innova Market Insights in its Top Trend for 2020 “Storytelling: Winning with Words.” 

By Benjamin Ferrer