Buy Shea Butter Direct From the Factory in Nigeria

Wild-collected shea nuts (Vitellaria paradoxa) come from Nigeria's shea belt through a cooperative network of 5,000+ women collectors. Buying at the farm gate is how we control dryness, handling and price. Quality is incentivised before the kernels ever reach Moniya.

Each intake lot is inspected for moisture and visual defects. Rejected lots do not enter production. Accepted lots receive a batch code that follows the kernels through pressing, filtration, laboratory release and the Certificate of Analysis that travels with the shipment.

Stones, husk, debris and dust are removed before the kernels are conditioned. Clean intake is what keeps grit out of the press and out of the finished unrefined Grade A shea butter.

Kernels are conditioned at 45–50°C so they press cleanly. This is not the same as adding heat at the press. The low temperature is only enough to release the fat; unsaponifiables, colour and the classic shea odour that Grade A buyers specify stay intact.

Expeller pressing extracts the fat without solvents and without heat added during pressing. That is what cold-pressed, unrefined shea butter means on our specification: mechanical extraction only. The solid residue is shea press cake, sold separately for soap, feed and fertiliser.

Crude butter is filtered twice — 200 microns, then 100 microns — to remove fines before laboratory release. Double filtration is how we get export-clean unrefined butter without bleaching or deodorising the Grade A lot.

Finished butter is tested in our Ibadan lab for free fatty acid (FFA), moisture, melting point and colour before a Certificate of Analysis is issued. A lot that misses spec does not pack. Peroxide value and identity parameters (saponification, iodine, unsaponifiable matter) are reported as specified on the order. Every shipment carries the COA for that batch.

Released butter is packed in food-grade 5 kg, 25 kg and 200 kg drums or 1000 L IBC tanks, sealed and labelled with batch codes and production dates. The same batch code on the drum is the batch code on the Certificate of Analysis.

Finished shea butter is held at 15–20°C, protected from light, until container loading. Cool, dark storage is how we keep peroxide value down. Rancidity risk starts with heat and light, not with the press.

Each shipment leaves with a Certificate of Analysis, packing list and the commercial documents the destination requires, then loads at Apapa (Lagos) or Tin Can Island (Lagos). Quotes are EXW, FOB, CIF — the buyer chooses. Lead time is Ibadan production time plus ocean time to the named port. EMI Agro produces 40 tonnes per week of finished shea butter and can schedule rolling shipments. Exact weeks depend on the quantity on the purchase order.