The EU Ambassador to Ghana, Diana Acconcia, and her accompanying delegation visited the Bunge Loders Croklaan facility in Tema to get a better understanding of the shea business and learn more about the company’s activities in West-Africa.
During the visit, the Ambassador and her team took a tour of the laboratory and control room to help them understand the day-to-day operational activities of the plant.
They had the opportunity to learn about the sourcing and crushing process of the shea nuts, and subsequent processing of the shea butter into different fractions.
The team was also introduced to Bunge Loders Croklaan’s sustainability programme, ‘Where Life Grows’ – which focuses on empowering women and future generations, creating socio-economic value at origin, and conserving and protecting shea landscapes.
The facility in Tema opened in 2019 and is the company’s first shea processing plant in Africa and the largest of its kind on the continent.
The facility is a fully-automated solvent fractionation plant that processes raw shea butter made from locally collected and crushed shea nuts.
Currently, the facility provides employment to 73 people, most from the local community.
It plays a critical role in strengthening Bunge Loders Croklaan’s infrastructure for processing and supplying high-quality shea products to its customers around the world.
Its strategic location not only allows for a more efficient production process, but also delivers on Bunge Loders Croklaan’s commitment to building a more sustainable supply chain for shea – as it allows the company to meaningfully support and empower the local shea communities through the transfer of knowledge of value adding processes, and by investing in local skills development.
Bunge Loders Croklaan is proud to join forces with local communities to help build and advance the African shea industry together.
