Shea stakeholders press for demand and supply forces for market drive

The stakeholders trading in shea nuts and butters have advocated that the forces of demand and supply be allowed to determined prices of the products saying it would enhance productivity. This was contained in press statement issued and signed by the Head of secretariat, National Shea Products Association of Nigeria (NASPAN) Mrs Aderemi Apatari.

The statement expressed the concern of local sellers over the manners at which major international buyer like AAK incorporated has fixed the prices for shea nuts with an example of a recently released ‘’ voice memo’’ sent out as regards the price the company would be ready to pay at its Abuja and Ibadan centres. They added the act has undermined the economics principle of demand and supply forces in any business transaction.

This position was taken after a meeting convened by NASPAN and held at the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) on 2^nd December 2019 where challenges confronting the sub sector were discussed between the producers and major international buyer. The NASPAN president, Jibril Bokani stated that the meeting was to address major challenges as observed from the last shea season, and effect of various policies on market.  

It was stated that NASPAN is poised and positioned to engage all stakeholders especially policy makers to drive policies that will ease doing business in the sector stressed that all stakeholders in the trade of shea must be abreast of information from the Association as NASPAN will be ready to provide such services from 2020.

They reportedly asked that AAK should let the market forces of demand and supply determine the prices, while they take cognizance of the auxiliary processing costs and logistics in their attempts to propose costs as lack of this will discourage further investments in the sector.

Speaking on the way forward, the Secretary General of NASPAN, Mr. Modibo said that it is imperative to have a working synergy between shea collectors, suppliers and buyers; hence he suggested that major buyers like AAK should constantly be engaging their regular major suppliers before announcing price changes.

In his response according to the statement on the issue of price fixing, the AAK representative, Mr. Guillaume Noirot remarked that the price is still being dictated by the forces of demand and supply pointing that “it is when demand drops that prices drops, especially at this period which is off season.”

 He also noted that as a major exporter his company was forced to contend with a lot of factors in the Nigerian market such as infrastructure and logistics cost which are quite high coupled the current difficulty of shipping of shea nuts saying this is already making his company to have a rethink of business in Nigeria stressed that “the intensity of the issues is making the company reconsider its decision to trade in Nigeria.”