Shea Butter Producing Countries In Africa
The Shea tree can grow up as high as 15 meters or 49.2 feet. From there, it can take as long as forty to fifty years before it matures and is able to produce the nuts needed to make Shea butter (also known as peanut butter).
Shea tree grows uncultivated in 19 countries across the African continent, namely Zaire, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Sudan, Guinea, Central African Republic Bissau, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Benin, Togo, Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Uganda, Uganda.
In Ghana, it occurs extensively in the Guinea savannah and less abundantly in the Sudan Savannah. The shea tree occurs over almost the entire area of Northern Ghana, over about 77,670 km in Lawra, Tumu, Southern Mamprusi, Western Gonja, Wa, Western Dagomba, Nanumba with Eastern Gonja having the densest stands.
The area that the tree grows in is known as the Shea belt region. This area stretches almost three thousand miles from Senegal in West Africa all the way across into Ethiopia.