Agro Expert for AAK in Burkina Faso

The position

The shea tree is a wild tree growing in a belt across Africa south of Sahara. Shea kernels are a very important and unique raw material for AAK. The Agro Expert is a new role created to understand and improve the growing conditions for shea – shea which is part of AAKs supply chain.

The Agro Expert will take part in projects together with external partners with the aim to develop the shea crop industry in West Africa.

To build up an understanding and valuable know-how, different methods must be taken into use. With a foundation from literature studies and theory you must acquire a solid basis of already available knowledge. To take things further you will need to test your own ideas and hypotheses and acquire a significant amount of hands-on experience.

You need to be able to work both independently as well as in a multi-cultural team and also be prepared to work in rural areas of West Africa.

As Agro Expert you will be referring to the Sourcing and Trading Manager who is based in Karlshamn, Sweden.

The profile

 To be successful in this job you need to have qualifications and personal preferences that matches the special character of the job.

The following qualifications have high priority:

• Technical training as horticulturist, agronomist, agro engineer or similar formal education at Master level. Alternatively you have other relevant education combined with relevant hands on experience
• Minimum 3 years experience with the cultivation and optimization of crops – preferably experience with exotic crops like shea, cocoa or similar
• International experience - optimally from Africa (short term work placement, expatriation, cooperation, mission, etc.)
• French and English spoken operationally – Scandinavian language is an added advantage

The AAK team in Burkina Faso consists of European expats as well as local employees, and it is important that you fit into this team – both in ways of working and on a more personal level. At the same time it is also vital, that you are comfortable with the working and living conditions in a part of the world that is likely to be quite different from home in almost all aspects.