Distribution and Habitat
The shea tree grows naturally in the wild in the dry savannah belt of West Africa from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east, and onto the foothills of the Ethiopian highlands. It occurs in 19 countries across the African continent, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea.
Neumann et al. (1998:60) report a testa from the medieval village of Saouga and note that shea-butter production was recorded by Ibn Baṭṭuṭa in the 14th century.
A reflection of its extensive range of occurrence nearly 5,000 km from Senegal (west) to Uganda (east) across the African continent. Chinese buyers working for the cosmetics industry have recently improved the market significantly in Northern Ghana
Read more about this topic: Vitellaria Paradoxa
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