Certified Organic & Fairtrade

Handcrafted, organic & fair trade

Here at Deluxe Shea Butter we endorse Fair Trade and environmentally sustainable practices while providing employment and opportunity to local individuals and their communities. Our Shea butter is certified organic and fair trade for its premium quality and grade, which sets it apart from our competitors.

Deluxe Shea butter is produced and processed by Deluxe Shea Butter Ghana Ltd, who is certified Organic by Ecocert for EU Organic under the European Regulation, USDA Organic under the National Organic Program and certified Fair Trade by Ecocert under the Fair for Life Program.

Certified Organic

At Deluxe Shea Butter, our Shea butter is organically certified by Ecocert for EU Organic under the European Regulation, USDA Organic under the National Organic Program and Fair Trade under the Fair for Life program for its premium quality and grade which sets us apart from our competitors.

Our Certification and Inspection Process

Ecocert’s primary activity consists in an inspection, based on what the respective standard’s demands. Ecocert then issues a document which certifies the compliance of your products, systems or services within that standard.

Ecocert auditors monitor the certification position throughout the year by conducting on-site inspections. The audits include the entire production system such as: inputs, production, manufacturing, processing, packaging, labelling, storage, distribution and import so as to provide traceability to all stakeholders. Annual monitoring inspections are conducted, some which are random checks where samples could be taken for laboratory analysing.

The audit reports are then independently verified by Ecocert in order to certify organic products.

To find out more about Ecocert, please visit www.ecocert.com

USDA ORGANIC

Deluxe Shea Butter holds the USDA Organic Farming certification under the National Organic Program (NOP) issued by Ecocert. Ecocert is accredited by the USDA for the certification of plant production, wild collection and processing/handling according to the NOP standard.

Established by Congress in 2001, this federal regulatory program develops and enforces uniform national standards for organically-produced agricultural products sold in the United States.

Other essentials of this certification include:

climate and environment protection • absence of GMO
conservation of soil fertility • preservation of biodiversity
respect of natural cycles and animal welfare • transparent labelling for consumers
absence of use of chemical and synthetic products
transparent labelling for consumers

In order to obtain the USDA organic logo, the products must be certified organic by a certification body approved by the competent authorities like Ecocert to verify their compliance to the American official organic Regulation, the NOP. In order to obtain organic certification, farmers, producers, processors and handlers document their processes and get inspected every year. Organic on-site inspections account for every component of the operation. Tracing organic products from start to finish is part of the USDA organic promise.

To find out more about USDA Organic, please visit www.ams.usda.gov/

EU ORGANIC

Deluxe Shea Butter holds the EU Organic Farming certification under the Organic Farming Europe (EU Organic Regulation) issued by Ecocert.

The Ecocert Organic Standard (EOS) scheme is operated by Ecocert SA as a private certification scheme. Having EU Organic certification allows us to export our certified organic Shea butter and products to be commercialised within the European Union as “organic”.

Other essentials of this certification include:

climate and environment protection • absence of GMO
conservation of soil fertility • preservation of biodiversity
respect of natural cycles and animal welfare • transparent labelling for consumers
absence of use of chemical and synthetic products
transparent labelling for consumers

The EOS standard extends to all stages of production, processing and distribution of organic products. This includes the basic production of an organic product up to product storage, processing, labelling, advertising, import, export, transport, marketing and delivery to the end user.

In order to obtain the green EU logo and the label “organic”, your products must be certified by a certification body approved by the competent authorities like Ecocert to verify their compliance to the EU organic regulation.

To find out more about Ecocert, please visit www.ecocert.com

CERTIFIED FAIR TRADE

In 2019, our related company Deluxe Shea Butter Ghana Ltd was certified Fair trade by Ecocert under the Fair for Life Program which sets us apart from our competitors.

Deluxe Shea Butter is committed to fulfilling the requirements for the Fair for Life, Fair Trade certification programme. As a result, we have tailor-made policies to serve as guidelines for implementing the certification requirements and beyond. Being certified to Social and Fair Trade is a guarantee that our enterprise is committed to sustainable development and improvement of social conditions, meeting the demands of increasing conscious consumers and thereby creating new market possibilities.

In order to fulfil the fair for life, fair trade and responsible supply chains, the following policies are developed and adhered to:

Core Principles and Values
Fair Trade Policy Management
Social Responsibility
Environmental Responsibility
Local Impact
Fair Trade in Supply-Chain Management
Empowerment and Capacity Building
Respect for the Consumer
Managing Certification and Performance.

Deluxe Shea Butter Ghana Limited has summarised these Fair for Life principles under social, environmental and economic without losing sight of the detailed standard requirements of Fair for Life. Deluxe Shea Butter has developed these policies based on the following sustainable development principles:

Social Principles – Compliance with ILO conventions and national legislation; support to trade unions; equal benefits; improvement and development of education and surrounding communities; no discrimination and no compulsory work; labour safety and health.

Environmental Principles – Natural resources, water, waste, biodiversity management.

Economic Principles – Fair trade relationships; transparency; reward to promote social and environmental projects.

Fair for Life promotes an approach of Fair Trade that allows all producers and workers who are at a socio-economic disadvantage to access a wider range of social and economic benefits. Fair Trade is part of a broader context of sustainable development within a region that safeguards and supports the local social fabric, particularly in rural settings.

To find out more about Fair for Life, please visit www.fairforlife.org/

CRUELTY FREE & VEGAN

At Deluxe Shea Butter all our products are 100% Vegan with no animal-derived ingredients and not tested on animals. All of our products are suitable for vegans. Our company holds the Choose Cruelty Free certification with all our products and ingredients been assessed as Vegan during the accreditation process. We are accredited by Choose Cruelty Free Ltd as a cruelty free company and hold the Choose Cruelty Free certification.

To find out more about Choose Cruelty Free, please visit www.choosecrueltyfree.org.au/

Global Shea Alliance

The Global Shea Alliance is a non-profit industry association with 500 members from 35 countries including women’s groups, brands and retailers, suppliers and NGOs. Through public-private partnership, the GSA promotes industry sustainability, quality practices and standards, and demand for shea in food and cosmetics.

Shea Network Ghana

Our mission is to engender a common national shea agenda, facilitate and co-ordinate the efforts of all stakeholders in promoting shea for equal benefits of actors in the sector and to contribute to shaping and sustaining a supportive policy and environment in the Shea Sector especially addressing the concerns of buyers and shea traders.

Our Co-operative Groups and Network

Ghana Network of Pickers and Processors

Our organization is an organized group of about 1,800 women Shea nut collectors and processors under the Deluxe Shea Butter Ghana Network.

As a producer and supplier, we work closely with the women’s co-operative groups that operate within our Deluxe Shea Butter Ghana Network of Pickers and Processors. They are located in the northern region of Ghana to pick and process the Shea nuts to the unrefined stage.

Our organic Shea nut collection sites are in Tolon District in the Northern region of Ghana and the processing base is located in Tamale. We work with ten communities for the organic and Fair Trade collection of Shea nuts. These ten communities are:

Kpendua
Gbrumani
Nabilgu
Kagbal
Sinsina
Kpachiyili
Bunyili
Gbrumani-Tibogu
Nyobalga
Tibogu

Each of these communities have their individual community warehouses in which the collected nuts are stored prior to transportation to the processing centres.

Co-operative Groups

At Deluxe Shea Butter, we work with women’s co-operative groups for the processing of our organic and fair trade Shea butter.

Our mission and commitment is to bring the benefits of Shea butter to the world whilst empowering local individuals and their communities, thus providing employment and opportunity and creating a sustainable quality of life.

Our five co-operative society groups are: