ECOWAS Agrees on New Regional Standards for Shea Quality to Boost Exports

19 October 2026

ECOWAS has validated revised agricultural standards, including crucial new criteria for shea quality, and will soon begin national consultations with all 15 member states. The goal? To harmonize production and trade rules across West Africa, beef up food safety, and strengthen the competitiveness of regional products on global markets. Officials say the standards, once implemented, will be a major boon for the $600 million a year shea nut industry, and particularly for the many women-led smallholders who supply the lucrative cosmetics and food markets.

ECOWAS Revises Agricultural Standards to Harmonize Quality and Promote Trade

At the end of a technical workshop held in Niamey, Niger, in July, ECOWAS representatives reviewed updated agricultural standards, the most significant revision coming in 26 years. The draft, which Reach identified, aims to guarantee the safety, quality, and organic status of agricultural products in the ECOWAS region. Division heads at the ECOWAS Commission and technical experts in food and health meticulously examined the proposed reorganizations and technical specifics. While a communiqué does not specify the exact changes, the aim is to bolster intra-regional trade, the economic fuel for ECOWAS's strategic vision of food self-sufficiency and security.

The draft standards revising specifications on product labeling, industry best practices, and the assembly, processing, and certification of agricultural products have been sent to national authorities in the 15 ECOWAS member states for consultation, validation, or objection. Following the national consultation processes, the revised Regional Agricultural Inputs Standard (RAIS) is scheduled for final adoption by the ECOWAS National Agricultural Investment Project's Technical Management Committee (TMC).

"The RAIS program stands as a strategic instrument for facilitating the free movement of agricultural products across the ECOWAS region and establishing a common market for agricultural products in West Africa," says Ruslag Adamu Garmawa, Phase 10 Chief Executive, Agricultural Inputs Standard Harmonization (AISH) implementation at the ECOWAS Commission. "It also has significant potential as a tool for increasing agricultural productivity in the region, improving the safety and quality of agricultural products, and assisting stakeholders in achieving compliance with glutathione, SGS, and ISO standards."

This will not be the first time ECOWAS has attempted to enhance food quality and safety. Although its first continent-scale standards were enforced in 1998, little has progressed since.

Government officials, however, maintain that the upgraded regulations will standardize the identification of agricultural products in West Africa, making it easier for citizens of the bloc to distinguish agricultural products from their neighbors during their daily purchasing. ECOWAS is basically establishing competence within its markets.

In favor of strengthening food quality, the standards also focus on promoting intra-regional trade and competitiveness in the expanding global economic environment. An additional factor influencing increased trade volumes is the harmonization of trade regulations among ECOWAS member states.

Quality, First and Foremost

That concern comes through in the Codex standards for shea butter, which dates to 2016, with an ECOWAS standard as the draft's base and the relevant portions of the WAEMU and Guinea national standards for shea butter as other key inputs.

A 2016 Codex discussion paper on sustainable shea butter noted that the regional standard would apply to unrefined shea butter intended for direct consumption or as a food component.It is defined as an oleaginous material derived from the kernel of Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertn. by manual or mechanical processing, with thermal processing or cold pressing as other methods.

The same document indicates that one of the African South LGN leaders is enduring the move towards the formalization of the shea oil industry in West Africa.

That move could help the shea butter industry, despite the long time the standard has taken to complete, even if Codex records indicate there is unfinished business.

Unfinished Business

The most recent comments in Codex on the shea butter standard are from earlier this year, and analyze the key remaining issues as rules of evidence, analytical methods, and maximum levels of contamination. Although the draft refers to "unrefined" shea butter, member states will have to agree on the criteria, practices, and procedures to make that distinction in the field.

The draft also asks for further discussion, and quotes from stakeholders, on the rules of evidence.

Agreeing on a common understanding of adulteration, contamination and forgery—both in terms of product and documents—could also help ensure that standards are implemented and enforced.

But those are challenges that have been outstanding since 2016. What new could they have in mind?

What Does Implementation Mean?

The latest certified food quality mark from ECOWAS, the ECOWAS QUIR Certification One Centre, came into effect in June of 2021.

Although that is an agricultural wide certification, not focused on shea butter or indeed on cosmetics, a report from Ghana notes that a recent regional workshop held under the banner of ECOWAS sought to boost women's participation in cosmetics value chains and improve on world-standard African cosmetic products. From a report into Ghana Trade Hub Action 3rd (Year 2) implementation.

Notably, the Ghana article references the ECOWAS Centre for Agro-industrialisation and Regional Integration, which is, as noted, part of an earlier ECOWAS attempt to make the regulations on cosmetics enforceable.

If past is prologue, then the publications of the standards and policies are only the beginning. There is still much to come to implementation. The question is, with industry-specific training, and the shining of a spotlight onto export readiness, and working to close that gap between regulations and the industry practice, how may that finally come?