The Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) is pressing the government to require part of the country’s domestic shea trade to pass through its platform, arguing that structured trading would improve price discovery, product standards and access to finance as Ghana seeks to retain more value from the crop at home.

GCX chief executive Evelyn Abakah outlined the proposal at the World Shea Expo in Tamale on September 15-17, with the initiative subsequently reported by the Business and Financial Times.

The proposal comes as Ghana tightens controls on raw shea exports and targets greater domestic processing. The Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA) has introduced a minimum producer price of GHS9.01 per kilogram for the 2026 crop season and requires exporters to obtain permits for shea and other regulated tree crops.

President John Mahama has said the government wants roughly 50% to 60% of shea, cashew and rubber production processed each year locally. Government officials had earlier signalled plans to phase down raw shea exports from 2026, although the regime currently in force relies on export permits rather than a blanket prohibition.

The government has not publicly endorsed mandatory GCX trading for shea, but its broader policy direction favours greater domestic value addition. Vice-President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang told the World Shea Expo that Ghana should move beyond raw exports towards industrial processing, product innovation, packaging and branding.

The GCX proposal also comes as the TCDA separately tightens regulation of tree-crop trading, including licensing, minimum-price enforcement and mandatory documentation for the movement of produce.

GCX argues that structured exchange trading could form part of the market infrastructure needed to support that shift.

“Ghana can capture a much larger share, but only with a market structure strong enough to support that ambition. That is exactly the gap the Ghana Commodity Exchange was built to close,” Abakah said.

She said about two-thirds of Ghana’s shea currently leaves the country unprocessed, reducing the value retained by producers, processors and communities.

Ghana already has a sizeable processed shea export business, but raw-nut exports remain substantial. Ghana Export Promotion Authority data show raw shea nuts generated $177.8mn in export earnings in 2025, slightly more than the $174.3mn earned from shea oil. Raw-nut earnings more than doubled from the previous year, while shea-oil exports rose about 15%.

The figures underline the policy challenge: Ghana is not starting from zero on processing, but raw exports remain a major part of the trade. Moving further up the value chain would require expanding production of higher-value butter, food ingredients, cosmetics and branded products.

The scale of the industry is significant. Ghana produces about 130,000 to 150,000 tonnes of shea nuts annually, worth an estimated $118mn, according to the United Nations Development Programme. The sector remains fragmented, with weak market information, inconsistent access to buyers and financing constraints among producers and processors.

GCX seeks to formalise more commodity trading

GCX wants part of domestic shea trading to be conducted through the exchange, creating more transparent reference prices and standardising how quality is assessed.

The exchange says it has already worked with development partners including USAID and UNDP on shea quality and grading parameters that were validated with industry stakeholders in Tamale in 2024. Those standards could provide part of the technical infrastructure required to establish exchange-traded shea contracts.

GCX also points to its experience in other agricultural commodities, saying more than 500 farmers have obtained financing using stored produce as collateral through the exchange without a recorded loan default.

It says it has facilitated about 80,000 tonnes of commodity trades worth more than GHS400mn over the past five years across products including maize, rice, soybean and cashew.

The shea proposal also forms part of a broader GCX effort to channel more agricultural trading through formal exchange mechanisms. In July, the exchange called for foreign commodity buyers operating in Ghana to be required to purchase through GCX rather than sourcing directly at farm gates, arguing that formal trading would improve pricing, market data and oversight.

Nigeria offers a narrower regional precedent: approved excess raw shea exports must move through the Nigerian Commodity Exchange, although the measure does not require ordinary domestic shea trading to use the exchange.

See IntelliNews: Ghana revives shea factory as Nigeria bans raw exports, disrupting beauty industry chain

“This is not to change what shea is, who grows it, or who has worked in this industry for generations. It is simply to give shea the market infrastructure an industry of this importance deserves,” Abakah said.

Processors warn against moving too quickly

Processors broadly support the government’s push for more domestic value addition but differ over how quickly raw exports should be restricted.

Ghana Shea Employers Association President Rabiatu Abukari has backed tighter controls on raw exports and said they have already improved the availability of nuts to local processors. However, she has warned against closing the export market completely, arguing that processors may not yet have sufficient effective capacity to absorb the entire crop.

She has proposed allowing exporters to ship about 20% to 30% of production, preserving an outlet for excess supply while domestic processing expands.

The concern highlights a broader risk for policymakers: formalising and restricting the market too quickly could reduce liquidity or leave nuts without buyers if processing capacity, finance and demand do not expand at the same pace.

Government officials say the revived Buipe shea factory would have annual capacity of more than 60,000 tonnes when operational and could theoretically peak at 180,000 tonnes under continuous 24-hour production.

That peak figure exceeds UNDP’s estimate of current national shea-nut production, but it does not establish that the plant can currently absorb those volumes in practice. The contrast between installed capacity and effective operating capacity is central to the industry’s argument for retaining some export flexibility while local processing expands.