The kernel still leaves, but not on the old terms. Four countries have moved the same way in eighteen months: keep the processing at home.
What changed in Burkina Faso
Shea kernel exports had been prohibited since September 2024. The prohibition was lifted for a window that runs from 1 December 2025 to 31 May 2026 — a window, not a return to the previous regime.
Three conditions come with it. Exporters need a Special Export Authorisation (ASE). They must commit by binding contract to sell at least 25% of their volume to domestic processing units, evidenced by reception slips. And they pay a levy of 200 CFA francs per kilogram exported. Sales to local processors are themselves capped, at 300 to 310 CFA francs per kilogram.
It is a regional move, not a Burkinabè one
Benin applies a comparable export levy, at 165 CFA francs per kilogram. According to Ecofin Agency, Côte d'Ivoire and Togo suspended their own shea exports in January and April 2025 respectively.
The direction is consistent: push the value from the kernel towards the butter, and keep the transformation in the producing country. Regional shea butter exports reached a record in the first quarter of 2026 — the policy is working as intended, and raw kernels are the side of the trade that is being squeezed.
What it changes for a buyer
Three things now belong in the price build-up rather than in the surprises. The levy is a cost per kilogram, not a fee to be discovered at the quay. The authorisation conditions whether the lot can leave at all. And the window closes on 31 May: a shea contract signed in April for a June shipment is a contract that cannot be performed.
None of this makes the origin unworkable. It makes it a documented origin, where the paperwork has to be verified before the lot is bought rather than after.
What we ask a supplier
The ASE number, so that the right to export is established and not assumed. The contract and the reception slips evidencing the 25% sold to domestic processing. And the levy shown as a line in the offer, rather than absorbed into an FOB that no one can take apart.
A supplier who cannot produce those three is not offering a cheaper lot. He is offering a lot that may not board.