Olvea Burkina Faso, a subsidiary of the Olvea Vegetable Oils group, a French supplier of vegetable oils for the cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food industries (140 employees worldwide and generates a sales turnover of 65 millions euros, 70% of export), is now a member of the Union for the Ethical BioTrade (UEBT), a non-profit association that promotes the “Sourcing with Respect” of ingredients that come from biodiversity.

In becoming a member of UEBT, Olvea Burkina Faso commits to the principles of Ethical BioTrade: ensuring that sourcing practices promote the conservation of biodiversity, respect traditional knowledge and assure the equitable sharing of benefits all along the supply chain,” says the company in a release.

©Marco Schmidt

Olvea Burkina Faso is the shea butter production unit of Olvea Vegetable Oils. The unit produces solvent-free first press shea Butter and has an annual trituration capacity of around 3.500 tons of shea kernels.

Since its creation, Olvea Burkina Faso has developed a ‘sustainable supply chain’ approach, which relies on transparent and long-term relations with women’s cooperatives. This partnership is embodied by a contract. The objectives of this approach are: a higher remuneration for the women, a control of the quality of kernels through regular trainings, guaranteed commercial outlets for women’s cooperatives, a close day-to-day work with the cooperatives, and a total and unique traceability, from the kernels supplied by the women to the butter delivered worldwide,” adds the company.

The interest and innovation in Olvea Burkina Faso’s approach is that they have set up a subsidiary on-site, which locates the added value of the product, and their goal is to improve the supply chains in order to control them in a better way. To do so, they have direct contact with the women’s cooperatives, which allows them to make sure the pricing is fair and transparent,” points out Stéphanie Paquin-Jaloux, Programme Officer at UEBT.