• Burkina Faso suspends 2025-2026 shea-nut exports to aid local processors
  
  
• Authorities cite raw material shortages, smuggling to neighboring countries
  
  
• Shea butter exports fell 26% since 2019, official data shows
  

Burkina Faso’s government has indefinitely suspended shea-nut exports for the 2025-2026 season, the industry and commerce ministry said on Wednesday.

Authorities had initially set the export period from Dec. 1, 2025, to May 31, 2026, and required exporters to sell at least 25% of their output to domestic processors.

Officials said the suspension was prompted by the difficulty local processors face in securing enough raw materials, despite measures meant to give them priority access to the harvest.

The shortage is partly due to ongoing smuggling of shea nuts to neighbouring countries. On Nov. 22, the Mobile Brigade for Control and Fraud Repression (BMCRF) said it had intercepted and seized more than 1,800 tons of shea nuts across the country during an operation.

“Many traders and exporters have circumvented the regulation through attempted illegal exports to neighbouring countries and transport without proper paperwork,” said Sanibè Faho, the BMCRF’s general coordinator, in comments carried by the Burkina Information Agency (AIB).

The AIB said the seized stocks would be resold to processors to help fund the Patriotic Support Fund (FSP).

Facing persistent smuggling, the industry ministry plans to tighten border controls. The broader challenge in supporting local processing is to increase value added in the sector.

According to the National Institute of Statistics and Demography (Insd), shipments of shea butter, the main product derived from processing the nuts, fell by 26% over the last five years in Burkina Faso, dropping from 22,669 tons in 2019 to 16,751 tons in 2024.

Stéphanas Assocle