Shea Suppliers Day

Extending our approach throughout the supply chain

Bunge Loders Croklaan sources a portion of its shea nuts directly from women cooperatives in West Africa. Through the Where Life Grows sustainability program, the company has helped empower shea collecting women, create socio-economic value in their communities, and conserve and regenerate the shea landscape in the region. The result is a shea nut supply chain that benefits everybody.

However, Bunge Loders Croklaan also sources shea nuts from suppliers. In order to expand the reach of the Where Life Grows program to these indirect sources, the company organized a Suppliers Day in August to invite them to the sustainability program and improve the shea supply chain as a whole.

Central discussion, presentation and break-out sessions:

Trusted, long-term partners gathered for the first time

Our 5 key suppliers attended the Suppliers Day in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Most of them came from Burkina Faso, but there were also representatives from Togo and Ivory Coast. These are trusted suppliers with over 20 years of partnership with Bunge Loders Croklaan. The cooperation in these partnerships has thrived on a philosophy of mutual loyalty and transparency.

Empowerment benefits the supply chain

As part of the day's schedule, representatives from Bunge Loders Croklaan informed the suppliers about current trends in the market and discussed how traceability and empowering women are key factors to improve the shea industry. In addition, the company discussed Where Life Grows projects with the suppliers in an interactive session, and it was decided that working together in our sustainability projects will accelerate the progress that we are making even further; The suppliers are eager to participate in the program and discussed the available options and priorities in breakout sessions.

Four focus areas

At the end of the sessions, the suppliers identified four priorities where they believe they can have the most impact.

1. The first of these was off-season support where the women cooperatives receive loans to buy seeds and fund irrigation so they can grow other crops to both feed their families and generate extra income.
2. The second focus area was water sanitation which is vital for the health of the women’s villages.
3. The third priority chosen by the suppliers was programs on building women capacities on Cooperatives management through trainings, and the possibilities to improve women’s working conditions with the donation of equipment like shea rollers and energy-efficient stoves.
4. The fourth focus is on maintaining a healthy parkland through trainings and information.

Ambitions for moving forward

Benefiting all stakeholders

To facilitate the suppliers' participation, Bunge Loders Croklaan will contribute by sharing its knowledge and experience, and investing funds to help the partners execute the projects. The goals are to improve the quality of shea nuts and hence improve the value for both the women cooperatives and suppliers and generate positive impact on the families and communities where we are sourcing from. Ultimately this combination will make the shea industry as whole more sustainable.

Moving forward

We have a dashboard reporting on our progress around shea sustainability here.
And you can read all about the Where Life Grows program here.