• Mali launches 2025 shea season, sets price at 250 CFA/kg
• Ghana’s higher 433 CFA/kg price raises smuggling concerns
• Export bans push focus on local shea processing in West Africa

Mali has officially started its 2025 shea nut marketing season, setting the minimum farmgate price for a kilogram of good quality shea nuts at 250 CFA francs. This price, announced by the Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday, August 28, is the same as the one in Côte d'Ivoire, where the season began a few weeks earlier.

However, the price is 73% lower than the minimum price of 9.01 Ghanaian cedis, or about 433 CFA francs, set by Ghana’s Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA) in July. This wide discrepancy in pricing could encourage illicit trade between neighboring countries.

The risk of smuggling is a growing concern, as six of the seven largest shea producers in West Africa, including Mali and Côte d'Ivoire, have suspended raw shea nut exports since 2024. The policy aims to promote local processing and capture more value from the supply chain.

This issue is not new to the region. Price differences for cocoa between Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and other neighboring producers like Guinea, Liberia, and Togo fuel cross-border smuggling each year, despite strict regulations. While the market dynamics for shea and cocoa are not identical, farmers and intermediaries are often incentivized to sell their products where they can get the best price.

In a related development, Mali's shea sector interprofessional body (IFK) signed a memorandum of understanding with local processors during the marketing season launch to secure the supply of raw materials for domestic processing plants. The issue of minimum farmgate prices will be closely watched in the coming months, particularly as other major producers, including Burkina Faso, Togo, and Nigeria, which have also suspended shea nut exports, have not yet officially set their prices.

Stéphanas Assocle