The Northern Uganda Shea Processors Association (NUSPA)

In February of 1990, the Ugandan NGO COVOL began to assess the potentials of the shea resource for community-based rural economic development. The Shea Project for Local Conservation and Development (The Shea Project) began in 1992, starting with development of improved processing technologies and a revolving credit fund for traditional producers. The project has since begun to address marketing requirements of rural processors, women’s producer groups and marketing associations.

The Northern Uganda Shea Processors Association (NUSPA) was established in 1996 under the Shea Project, building on community-based partnerships first established in 1990. The Shea Project has since become a Ugandan initiative, based in Lira and continuing its technical and commercial partnership with NUSPA, from which it buys high-quality shea butter at a fair trade premium price for resale nationally and internationally.

NUSPA is comprised of rural producer groups of over 2000 members - mostly women – and NUSPA management is at least 2/3 female according to its constitution, in reflection of women’s traditional role as custodians of trhe shea resource across Africa.

NUSPA uses a village-level technology package (developed by the Shea Project with technical support from Ghana) to produce a high-value shea butter for food and cosmetic applications which does not require further refinement.

By agreement, the Shea Project purchases the highest quality cold-pressed shea butter from NUSPA at a fixed premium of 200 to 300% the common market price for traditionally processed shea butter. Food-grade ‘hot-pressed’ shea butter extracted from roasted sheanut (which gives a slightly higher yield and can be made from Grade B nuts) is purchased at a premium of 150 to 200% the common market price. Unlike traditional prices, the premium to NUSPA does not fluctuate throughout the year; production is done on order according to demand.

This premium ensures the highest possible quality standards, and protects traditional processors (as well as the NUSPA producers) from a market ‘flooded’ with cheap, high quality shea butter.  A consistently higher purchase price means a higher-value product, at a premium price which must be passed on through wholesale and retail market levels.

From 1996 to 2002, NUSPA grew to represent more than 2000 producers affiliated to over 50 rural producer groups in the Districts of Lira, Pader and Katakwi. However, with the breakdown of security across northern Uganda – particularly from 2002 to 2005 - causing the dispersal of rural communities into ‘Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP) camps and peri-urban areas of relative safety, NUSPA lost touch with much of its membership, and its production activities came to rely on a few major producing groups in Lira and Pader districts, purchasing high-quality sheanut from where it was available with little assurance of origin.

In December 2005, with the first glimmers of hope that security conditions may soon allow displaced producers to return to their home villages, NUSPA members met at Lira to chart a new course in light of the current security situation, in response to new commercial opportunities for certified organic shea butter.

Though one result of the dispersal of rural populations has been a breakdown in the tenure systems formerly administered by clans, another has been that for at least three years, chemical inputs to agriculture have been limited to areas within the camps, while the shea production areas outside of these limited areas have largely gone ‘back to bush’ – and may thus be ideally suited to establishment of a certified wildcraft organic production system.

With technical support from the Shea Project and the regional dissemination component of the ProKarité Project of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), NUSPA is redeveloping its production management system to obtain wildcraft organic certification of its products under supervision of the German certification agency CERES.

A pilot area consisting of the environs 10 IDP camps in Lira and Pader Districts has been defined, in which NUSPA Community Production Committees have been established, each under the direction of a NUSPA Certification Coordinator. A basic participatory resource mapping exercise is underway in the collection areas in the vicinity of each of the 10 pilot camps.

The production management system developed by the Shea Project is being adapted to the new production model, and training curricula are being adapted for rural collectors on the social and environmental aspects (and benefits) of organic production.

During the 2006 shea season, NUSPA Community Production Committees collected over 5,000 kg of wildcraft organic shea kernel, certified organic by the German certification body CERES according to EEC and USDA-NOP organic standards.

As security conditions continue to improve during ongoing peace talks between the Government of Uganda and the so-called Lords Resistance Army, displaced communities are already leaving the IDP camps of northern Uganda, making cautious forays into the rural areas they left behind.

During 2008, shea production and processing should regain its status as a primary nutritional and economic resource for the rural women of northern Uganda and their families – perhaps the most important economic activity during the current transition from insecurity and war to peace and reconstruction.

Unlike most crop-based revenue, the returns from shea production and marketing are controlled by women, who tend to invest their hard-earned income wisely and for the benefit of their families. Income from the sale of shea products supports basic household financial needs (food, clothing, medical care, soap, salt, etc.) and a wide variety of both short- and long-term investments.

Of these investments (including livestock, cultivation and shelter), perhaps none is more important than education – including school fees for the girl-child. In this way, the women of rural northern Uganda are working to uplift the next generation, based on conservation and long-term sustainable management of a unique natural resource of the deepest cultural significance.

NUSPA Group Photos

NUSPA Lira

NUSPA Katakwi

Contact:

More information:

www.thesheaproject.org

www.nuspafairtrade.org