Mali is one of the world’s leading shea producing countries. Yet today, most of the production is exported raw, without local processing. In this context, Mali Shi is the first industrial shea butter processing plant. The project aims to directly purchase shea nuts from local producers, process and export to international markets. The project capacity is 30,000 tons of shea nuts, the equivalent of 12,900 tonnes of shea butter. At full capacity, the project will generate annual revenues of $ 16.8 million.
The project is led by Omnium Mali, a significant industrial player in Mali. The overall investment is $ 5 million, funded by ECODEV, a local bank and the International Finance Corporation (a subsidiary of the World Bank). The construction of the plant started in september 2019 and the effective start of production is planned for may 2020.