Raw Shea butter is produce primarily by hand manually in Central
Africa.
The nuts from this tree are harvested, cracked, grilled and
pounded. The Shea tree ground throughout central Africa. A great deal of the
Shea is cultivated in Ghana. It is estimated that nine hundred thousand women
are involved in the production of raw Shea butter which is shipped to the US,
Europe and parts of Asia. The process of creating Shea Butter is labor
intensive mainly done manually with all human labor and primarily by women. The
labor intensive process is to harvest the green fruit with a nut inside.
The nut is collected as they lay on the ground after falling
from the tree. The nut is the magic which the women bring back to the village.
They are then boiled for 30 minutes and subsequently air cooled. Once the nuts
are cooled they can be cracked and individually removed from the shell. They
separate out the good nuts pound them into pieces and fry them. The next step
is to grind the Shea with a mortar, pestle, or between two stones. In some
cases this is done with a mechanical mill until the contents of the nut is
ground into a brown paste. They then mix the butter continuously by hand with
water manually until the Shea oil floats on top. It is now light brown to
beige. They then put this separated oil under a wood fire until it boils. The
pure Shea butter rises to the top and they scoop it into another pot. This is
done continually until all the Shea butter rises to the top, and then it is
allowed to cool into an ivory off white, or yellowish butter.
Blue Planet Organics acquires the most natural Grade A
unrefined Shea available. The company said this raw natural Shea they buy is
then shipped to New York where it is inspected and stored. Once the Shea has
passed inspection it is separated from blocks and warmed so it can pour into
jars. This last step is the only part done by US labor and with any mechanical
means. This allows for an all organic, natural raw Shea butter with no
additives or preservatives. Refined Shea has additives and preservatives, which
will change the complexity of the butter.
This process of providing raw unrefined Shea is much
different than most over the counter beauty products. Most beauty products used
and purchased in the US and Europe involve manufacturing processes with
factories in China, or the West. The company said that Shea really is in its
infancy in regards to how if it made available to the US. It is a big African
export and as noted it is done within villages without electronics and done 90%
by hand abroad. If a person wish to
learn more then type blue planet organics in Google, Bing, Facebook, Youtube or
on Amazon.
