Shea Butter FAQ

1. What is Natural Shea butter?
2. Why Are People Using Shea butter?
3. Is your Shea butter unrefined?
4. What color is your unrefined Shea butter?
5. Does your Shea butter have an odor?
6. What is the texture of your unrefined Shea butter?
7. How do I store my Natural Shea butter?
8. What is your Role in Shea butter Processing?
9. What Variety of Shea butter do you sell?
10. How do you guarantee a consistent quality of your 11. Shea butter?
12. What production method do you use?
13. Why do buyers favor Shea butter from Ghana?
14. Who should use Shea butter?
15. What is the shelf life of your Shea butter?
16. Why are your Shea prices so low?
17. What is your connection to Africa?
18. Do you send product samples?


What is Natural Shea butter? Shea butter is a fatty extract from the seed of the Shea Tree. The extract is known to contain a number of ingredients with biological activity. This biological activity includes moisturizing and healing skin ailments.

Why Are People Using Natural Shea butter? 100 % PURE SHEA BUTTER is a superior moisturizer, containing remarkable healing properties for various skin aliments. Unrefined Shea butter has the largest healing fraction and contains very special natural ingredients that are ideal for healthier skin. Shea butter contains the one vitamin that is absolutely mandatory for healthy skin. Additionally, Shea butter contains several natural anti-inflammatory agents and a minor sunscreen agent. Clinical studies have shown that this product transforms the skin in as little as 4-6 weeks, into a softer, smoother, and better looking skin. Those who routinely use Shea butter report a number of other special benefits for skin ailments, including blemishes, itching, sunburns, small skin wounds, eczema, skin allergies, and wrinkles. Because of an abundance of healing ingredients, and its superior moisturizing activity, Shea butter is in a unique class, as a stand-alone personal care product.

Is your Shea butter unrefined? No, traditional methods of processing are used in making our unrefined Shea butter. No chemicals or colors are used to extract or preserve our Shea butter.

What color is your unrefined Shea butter? Our Shea butter is an ivory, off-white color that varies slightly depending on the season.

Does your Shea butter have an odor? Our Shea butter is unrefined, therefore it does have the characteristic nutty aroma of unrefined Shea butter.

What is the texture of your unrefined Shea butter? Our unrefined Shea butter has a smooth, creamy texture with no graininess.

Who should use Shea butter? Everyone! Every household should have a jar of Shea butter, either among the beauty supplies for soft smooth better looking skin, or in the medicine cabinet for minor skin injuries around the house.

How do I store my Shea butter? Store Shea butter and oils away from harsh lighting or sun, in a cool dark area away from heat. May be refrigerated to extend shelf life. Raw, unrefined Shea butter has an average shelf life of 12 to 24 months without the addition of preservatives. The life of the Shea butter can be prolonged when stored under proper conditions as outlined below: Keep the unrefined Shea butter in a cool area, below 50 degrees F Store unrefined Shea butter in a dark area, away from direct sunlight Do not over heat the Shea butter when melting and avoid repeat melting Do not leave the Shea butter in your car with the windows closed. You can also add natural preservatives, such as vitamin E to extend the shelf life. Shea butter must be stored and transported in cool conditions and in airtight containers to avoid the butter becoming rancid.

What is your Role in Shea butter Processing? SEKAF (GH) Ltd, the sister company of Sekaf International LLC's main activity is international trade of tropical raw materials. SEKAF collects Shea nut products. The nuts collected are pretreated to prevent and remove the possibility of surface molds and also as a precaution to microbiological contamination. SEKAF (GH) Ltd nuts, from cursory observation even appear to be of excellent quality and have been confirmed in our laboratory analysis. We store our nuts in a well-constructed and maintained traditional storage facility. The Sheanut is very wet when it is picked and the drying process, bagging, packaging and storage has to be managed efficiently to ensure that the Free Fatty Acid content remains as low as possible. Our attention to details in the areas of processing, packaging, quality control, warehousing and shipments has made our Shea nuts and Shea nut products the best in quality. We offer our high quality, unrefined Shea butter at competitive prices.

What Variety of Shea butter do you sell? The West Africa Shea Tree variety Vitellaria Paradoxa.

How do you guarantee a consistent quality of your Shea butter? In our effort to maintain consistent and high quality of shea butter, we use the Cold press extraction method. Part of our success lies in our long standing and strong position in Shea nut export industry. We have a well developed Shea nut buying network which procures high quality nuts. This experience has meant the nuts used for butter extraction have been low in fatty acid. Note: Typically, FFA and moisture content required by buyers should be no higher than 1 percent.

What production method do you use? In our effort to maintain consistent and high quality of shea butter, we use the Cold press extraction method. This method is usually referred to as the Mechanical Extraction method. With this method, we make use of a small scale expellers powered by an engine/electric motor with the heating of shea kernels prior to pressing. No hexane or chemicals are used in the extraction process.

Why do buyers favor Shea butter from Ghana? Ghana has a well earned reputation for producing good quality nuts with low free fatty acid (FFA) content. This is a reflection of a good post-gathering practices. Political stability of Ghana also means uninterrupted and constant supply. Since, 1991 the Ghanaian Shea sub sector has had minimum interference from Government. This contrast with the situation in the Francophone countries where government investment and control have been the norm. Also, In Ghana, marketing channels are well defined and there has been a long standing export of Shea nut and butter to Europe and North American countries.

Who should use Shea butter? Everyone! Every household should have a jar of Shea butter, either among the beauty supplies for soft smooth better looking skin, or in the medicine cabinet for minor skin injuries around the house.

What is the shelf life of your Shea butter? In our processing facility in Ghana, we do not keep stock of Shea butter. We process on demand. From the time we receive the butter it has a shelf life of approximately 24 months.

Why are your Shea prices so low? Sekaf Ghana Ltd owns a processing facility in Ghana where we employ and train women to process the Shea butter. There are no middle men between our company and the producers. We are the producers thus eliminating the middlemen.

What is your connection to Africa? We are African owned. We piloted our own scheme to process shea butter at the community level, in a collaborative commercial project with a village on the northern region of Ghana. Our shea is harvested by women in rural areas, which suggest that income accrue to the most vulnerable in the villages.

Do you send product samples? We send free samples to our international importers. The importer is responsible for shipping and handling charges. Samples are shipped 4-10 after the receipt of shipping and handling charges. Samples are shipped from Ghana, West Africa.