ABSTRACT
At the same time as demand for shea on the world market was taking a new course, the conditions of supply and sourcing for shea-specifically shea nuts —in Ghana were being altered for many of the same reasons. On the face of it, as mentioned in Chapter 4, these shifts were instigated by the conditionalities of the IMF and World Bank, on whom Ghana relied for massive loans. Promoting a wide-ranging program of liberalization, these institutions pushed for a massive privatization effort on the part of the Ghanaian state. As a result, in 1992 private formal-sector firms were invited to enter the shea market and authorized to purchase nuts from the domestic market and sell them abroad. The state-run Produce Buying Company (PBC), in turn, was expected to withdraw from the market and instead oversee and insure the fair operation of private firms.
