In the central Nigerian town of Bida, rows of women sit on the ground, the air thick with the rhythmic, dull thud of wood against shell. They are cracking the sun-dried, brown shea fruit, preparing the hard inner nut for market—the essential first step in a process that ends with shea butter being sold in cosmetic stores and used in products like chocolate around the globe.
Women in Nigeria, which accounts for nearly 40% of the world’s shea crop, are the backbone of this multi-million dollar industry. However, their already marginal livelihoods have been shattered by a sudden government policy change implemented right in the middle of the harvest season, BBC World News reports.
In late August, Nigerian authorities announced a six-month ban on the export of raw shea nuts. The government’s stated intention was to boost local processing capacity, ensuring more of the final profit from the finished shea butter product remains in Nigeria.
The abrupt policy shift had an immediate, disastrous effect on the market for raw nuts. Because Nigeria lacks sufficient local capacity to process the entire national harvest, the sudden drop in demand led directly to a collapse in the price of shea nuts.
The result is a humanitarian crisis for hundreds of thousands of women, particularly in Niger state where Bida is located, who depend on shea production.
Income Halved, Families Suffer
For shea workers, the price collapse means their income is no longer enough to survive.
Hajaratu Isah, 40, who has prepared the fruit all her adult life and supports 11 people, including six children, described the dire situation to the BBC.
Before the export ban, Ms. Isah could earn up to 5,000 naira ($3.30) a day—enough to cover her daily school fees and regular medication for a recurring eye condition. Now, her income has dropped to less than half that amount.
“We are feeling hopeless. We cannot eat, we do not have money, and our children can no longer go to school,” she says. “Since the announcement, we have been suffering.”
The crisis extends throughout the supply chain, as even the laborers—the men paid to load the sacks of nuts onto lorries—have seen their wages halved, demonstrating the immediate and devastating ripple effect of the policy across the community.
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