WHERE DOES OUR COMMUNITY TRADE SHEA BUTTER COME FROM?
We’ve sustainably sourced our Community Trade shea butter from the Tungteiya Women’s Association in northern Ghana since 1994. 640 women from 11 villages handcraft 390 tons of shea butter for us every year using an 18-stage process passed from mother to daughter for generations. Each woman takes two days to expertly produce our shea in 25kg batches using traditional techniques to ensure the highest quality.
As well as paying a fair price, we pay a premium to help empower these women and help them to achieve an independent income, increased confidence and respect. This premium also helps fund community projects that positively impact the lives of 49,000 people across 11 villages every year. These community projects include building 7 schools that educate 1,200 students and enabling access for the community to safe water and health centres.
EXPLORE OUR SHEA RANGE
Enriched with Community Trade shea butter handcrafted in Ghana, our head-to-toe Shea range intensely nourishes dry skin and hair. Our new, richly textured Shea Butter is 100% natural and can be applied to dry face, body, lips and hair or used to create your own DIY beauty recipes. You can also richly replenish dry, prone to damage hair with our new, 3-step Shea haircare routine.
SHOP NOW
The world is our source of beauty
We source some of the finest raw ingredients and hand-crafted accessories from the four corners of the globe. We harness the skills of small-scale farmers, traditional artisans and rural – cooperatives who are experts in their field. We add our expertise to create effective products that are made with love and care.
We pioneered fair trade in beauty and today we have 31 Community Trade suppliers in 23 countries around the world, benefiting 12,450 people. See where our ingredients come from here.
-
1987
Community Trade
1987
Community Trade
Our pioneering Community Fair Tradeprogramme started when The Body Shopstarted sourcing ‘footsie’ massage rollersfrom an education and employment charityin India, which became a best-selling line
-
1989
Paper
1989
Paper
We bought Nepalese sustainable paper gifts made from plants clogging local waterways, leading to new employment for people and seed funding for community projects
-
1993
Sesame seed oil
1993
Sesame seed oil
We sourced our first Community Fair Trade ingredient – sesame seed oil
-
1998
Shea Butter
1998
Shea Butter
Anita discovered shea butter from Tamale, northern Ghana
-
2007
Supply Chain Award
2007
Supply Chain Award
We were awarded ‘The Big Tick’ Business In The Community Supply Chain Award
-
2008
Alcohol
2008
Alcohol
We were the first to use fair trade organic alcohol in cosmetics
-
2009
Ecocert
2009
Ecocert
Our Community Trade programme has been verified by third party organisations since 2009. Since 2017 our programme has been verified by Ecocert.
-
2011
Global Shea Alliance
2011
Global Shea Alliance
We helped establish the Global Shea Alliance, bringing industry members together to improve benefits for producers and increase the number of women involved in the trade
-
2013
Supply Chain Award
2013
Supply Chain Award
BITC named The Body Shop International Responsible Business 2013, based on our Community Fair Trade programme