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White Gold: Africa's Shea Economy: From Savannah Tree to Global Shelf
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Apr 6 2026
Pages: 190
Weight: 0.58
Height: 0.40 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A $2.76 billion global industry. Sixteen million women collectors. An average annual income of less than $200.
That gap is the story this book tells.
White Gold: Africa's Shea Economy is the most comprehensive account ever written of the global shea industry - from the wild, uncultivable Vitellaria paradoxa trees of the West African savannah, to the Rotterdam fractionation plants that transform their kernels into chocolate and luxury skincare, to the policy battles now reshaping who gets to keep the value Africa produces.
Written by a practitioner who has managed shea aggregation operations in Ghana's Upper West Region - one of the most shea-dense zones on earth - this book delivers what no outsider observer can: field-level honesty about how the supply chain actually works, who profits, who pays, and what it will take to change the equation.
In 19 chapters across five parts, you will discover:
Why the shea tree cannot be commercially farmed - and what that means for the industry's entire future supply base
How 16 million rural women sustain a multi-billion dollar global industry, often for less than the cost of one premium shea cream jar per year
The complete chemistry of shea processing: from traditional village kneading bowls to industrial fractionation and Cocoa Butter Equivalents
Why Ferrero, Nestlé, and Mondelez buy more shea annually than all cosmetics companies combined - and almost never disclose it
What Nigeria's landmark 2025 raw export ban means for global supply chains and Africa's processing ambitions
How climate change in the Sahel is quietly eroding the ecological foundation of the entire industry
Which specific interventions have demonstrably improved collector incomes - and the structural reasons why voluntary sustainability initiatives alone will never close the wealth gap
Profiles of the Big Four processors (AAK, Bunge, Cargill, Wilmar), the cosmetic titans (L'Oréal, Unilever, L'Occitane), and the emerging African players building the continent's answer
This book includes: 19 original data tables - 26 field callout boxes - 12 case studies - a 25-term industry glossary - a full bibliography - and a Global Shea Data Dashboard covering 2022-2026.
Essential reading for agribusiness professionals, supply chain managers, commodity traders, development practitioners, policymakers, sustainability professionals, agricultural economists, and anyone who wants to understand what Africa's most important wild-harvested commodity is really worth - and who is receiving that value.
White Gold belongs to Africa. The question is whether Africa will claim it.
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