Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has called for a major shift in Ghana’s shea industry, warning that the country cannot continue exporting raw materials while importing finished products made from the same resources.
She said Ghana must process more of its shea locally, develop new products and strengthen indigenous businesses so that more jobs and wealth generated along the value chain remain in Ghanaian communities.
The Vice President made the call on Tuesday when she attended the opening of the 2026 World Shea Expo at the Modern City Hotel in Tamale.
The three-day expo, running from September 15 to 17, is being held under the theme, “From Local Commodity to Global Brand: Accelerating Women and Youth-Led Value Addition in Shea.”
Professor Opoku-Agyemang said her visit to the expo was preceded by a tour of Nuts for Growth Limited, a woman-led shea enterprise working with thousands of women across the value chain.
She inspected the company’s laboratories and processing facilities and said the range of products developed from shea demonstrated the potential for greater value addition in Ghana.
“This is precisely the kind of transformation we need,” she said, stressing the need to move beyond the export of raw materials.
The Vice President said the focus must be on increasing domestic processing, developing new products, strengthening Ghanaian businesses and ensuring that jobs and wealth created from the shea industry remain within local communities.
Her position comes as stakeholders in Ghana’s shea industry push for greater local value addition and stronger participation of women and young people in the higher-value segments of the industry.
The World Shea Expo has brought together shea pickers, processors, aggregators, traders, exporters, companies, international buyers, investors, researchers, government institutions and other actors to explore investment and partnership opportunities across the value chain.
Organisers say the expo is intended to help move women and young people beyond collecting and primary processing into product development, packaging, branding and access to international markets.
The chairman of the Local Organising Committee, Professor Abukari Alhassan, earlier said Ghana and West Africa must not only be known for producing shea but also for the value added to it, the technologies developed, products created, brands built and jobs generated from the sector.
The expo is also taking place against concerns over access to shea nuts, financing for women processors and the destruction of shea trees through bushfires and other activities.
The Ghana Shea Employers Association has warned that women processors are increasingly struggling to secure adequate supplies of shea nuts, while stakeholders have called for stronger financing arrangements and protection of shea parklands.
The government has previously indicated that it wants to retain more value from Ghana’s shea industry through increased domestic processing, with officials also pointing to the country’s continued dependence on imported shea-derived products.
The World Shea Expo 2026 is being organised by Savannah Golden Tree Limited in partnership with the Ghana Export Promotion Authority and the Presidential Initiatives in Agriculture and Agribusiness, with participation from several public institutions and industry organisations.
The event continues in Tamale until Thursday, September 17.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
