NAN-AE-9
Shea butter
By Ijeoma Ndubisi
Abuja, March 7, 2017 (NAN) The Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) says it is working with the Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) to reduce shea butter gestation period from 25 years to five years.
Mr Sunday Onjewu, the Assistant Director, Entrepreneurship Development Division in the council, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday.
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“We’ve been able to open up a demonstration farm at Gawo in the FCT (Federal Capital Territory).
“At the moment, the average gestation period of a shea butter tree is 25 years and for an investor, that is too long a time to wait after planting.
“But working with NIFOR (Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research), we have been able to produce improved varieties that can now begin to fruit in five years to cut off 20 years of waiting.
“At the moment we have planted 400 seedlings of that improved varieties just to demonstrate to people that may be interested in plantation that this thing is possible and is viable.”
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He said the council had strategic committees working to ensure that diverse raw materials in the country were properly harnessed.
He stated that the council is training women in some states where shea butter is produced to help improve the quality of the produce.
Onjewu added that the council was improving shea butter production to encourage export.
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“We’ve done training in Niger state; we have proposed training for Gombe state and training is coming up in Nasarawa state.
“We are training the local women on how to add value to the nuts that they pick from the bushes.
“We have sent samples of Nigerian shea butter to the American Shea Butter Institute and they have done the analysis and sent us the result.
“And the result shows that yes, our shea butter is poor in terms of quality for cosmetics.
“But the good thing is that they said if we improve on our handling process; most times from the local villages they use water from the stream in processing.
“And water from the stream is impure, and so those things end up in the butter and it will show, if we improve on quality, the market is worldwide.
“As we speak now there are people that are coming from U.S. to still buy, but they still have to do a lot of refining.
“So we are teaching our people how to do proper refining, proper processing, so that our product can meet international market (standards) apart from domestic market.”
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NIU/LAB/YEE
Edited by Lydia Beshel/Emmanuel Yashim
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