TOKYO: Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji, known for its snowcap forming around this time of the year, is still snowless in November for the first time in 130 years, presumably because of the unusually warm temperatures in the past few weeks.
The lack of snow on Mt. Fuji, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as of Tuesday breaks the previous record set on Oct. 26, 2016, meteorological officials said.
Usually, the 3,776-meter- (nearly 12,300-foot-) high mountain has sprinkles of snow falling on its summit starting Oct. 2, about a month after the summertime hiking season there ends. Last year, snow fell on the mountain on Oct. 5, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, or JMA.
The snowless Mt. Fuji has captured attention on social media. People posted photos showing the bare mountain, some expressing surprise and others concerned over climate change.
The JMA’s Kofu Local Meteorological Office, which keeps weather data in central Japan and was the agency that announced the first snowfall on Mt. Fuji in 1894, has cited October’s surprisingly summery weather as the reason.
The average October temperature is minus 2 Celsius (28.4 Fahrenheit) at the summit, but this year, it was 1.6 Celsius, (34.9 F), a record high since 1932.
Japan this year also had an unusually hot summer and warm autumn.
A symbol of Japan, the mountain called “Fujisan” used to be a place of pilgrimage. The mountain with its snowy top and near symmetrical slopes have been the subject of numerous forms of art, including Japanese ukiyoe artist Katsushika Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.
Today, it attracts hikers who climb to the summit to see the sunrise. But tons of trash left behind and overcrowding have triggered concern and calls for environmental protection and measures to control overtourism.
![]()
Mount Fuji is still without its iconic snowcap for the first time in 130 years
Short Url
https://arab.news/c6d3s
Mount Fuji is still without its iconic snowcap for the first time in 130 years
- The lack of snow on Mt. Fuji, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as of Tuesday breaks the previous record set on Oct. 26, 2016, meteorological officials said
- Usually, the 3,776-meter- (nearly 12,300-foot-) high mountain has sprinkles of snow falling on its summit starting Oct. 2
Sellers under strain in Ivory Coast’s struggling shea industry
KORHOGO: With nuts scarce as the shea season draws to a close, buyer Souleymane Sangare’s warehouses in Ivory Coast’s northern city of Korhogo are empty.
In a country where shea production is modest and largely based in the north, sellers made up for the shortfall by sourcing from Mali and Burkina Faso.
But last year, the neighboring countries — among the world’s top shea crop producers — halted shea nut exports to boost local production.
The shea tree is a symbol of the dry African savannah. Its fruit contains a nut that women collect and sell raw, or process into butter for skincare or the food industry.
“Since they suspended exports, it has been hard to get nuts. And on top of that, this year Ivorian production has not been profitable enough,” said Sangare, a buyer at Korhogo market and vice president of the Ivorian Shea Network.
Gone are the mountains of nuts in his two warehouses — only a few sacks remain this year.
“I normally have between 3,500 and 4,000 tons of nuts per season. This year, I haven’t even managed 500 tons, two months after the start of the season” from mid-August to October, he said.
- Strong global demand -
In January, Ivory Coast also suspended exports of its nuts to secure supply for its own industry.
“We can’t criticize other countries for doing the same,” Mamadou Berte, head of the Cotton, Cashew and Shea Council, said.
Korhogo is home to the country’s first modern shea butter processing plant.
“I signed a contract to supply nuts to this plant, but I’m struggling to meet it because I can’t find enough,” Sangare told AFP.
Togo and Nigeria have also frozen raw nut exports. Ghana, for its part, plans a gradual ban starting in 2026.
Those decisions, combined with strong global demand — driven by shea butter’s use as a cheaper alternative to cocoa butter — have left the west African market under strain, according to consultancy N’Kalo.
As a result, prices have soared, while trade has faltered.
In Ivory Coast, the minimum farmgate price of 250 CFA francs ($0.44) per kilo has climbed to 350 CFA. Factory prices set at 305 CFA per kilo now range between 386 and 400 CFA, N’Kalo noted at the end of November.
- Slow market -
At least 152,000 women make a living from shea in natural production zones, according to the Ivorian agriculture ministry.
At the Chigata cooperative in Natio-Kobadara, near Korhogo, dozens of women toiled under a blazing sun to make butter.
Sacks of nuts were stacked in the yard, while mills whirred nonstop, churning out dense, chocolate-colored shea paste.
“Last year, we sold a kilo of shea butter for between 4,000 and 4,500 CFA francs — that’s something we have never seen in our lifetimes,” said Noulourou Assiata Soro, secretary general of the cooperative, which brings together more than 120 women.
She lamented, though, the lack of market outlets for their products.
However, “when it’s expensive, the market is slow,” said Tenin Silue, 49, who has been selling shea butter at Korhogo market for 10 years.
The 150-kilo sack of nuts that the cooperative used to buy for 60,000 CFA francs now costs 70,000, according to Soro.
The upward trend in prices is expected to continue in the coming months, marking the end of the harvest season in the west African shea market, where the supply of nuts remains very limited, according to N’Kalo.
In a country where shea production is modest and largely based in the north, sellers made up for the shortfall by sourcing from Mali and Burkina Faso.
But last year, the neighboring countries — among the world’s top shea crop producers — halted shea nut exports to boost local production.
The shea tree is a symbol of the dry African savannah. Its fruit contains a nut that women collect and sell raw, or process into butter for skincare or the food industry.
“Since they suspended exports, it has been hard to get nuts. And on top of that, this year Ivorian production has not been profitable enough,” said Sangare, a buyer at Korhogo market and vice president of the Ivorian Shea Network.
Gone are the mountains of nuts in his two warehouses — only a few sacks remain this year.
“I normally have between 3,500 and 4,000 tons of nuts per season. This year, I haven’t even managed 500 tons, two months after the start of the season” from mid-August to October, he said.
- Strong global demand -
In January, Ivory Coast also suspended exports of its nuts to secure supply for its own industry.
“We can’t criticize other countries for doing the same,” Mamadou Berte, head of the Cotton, Cashew and Shea Council, said.
Korhogo is home to the country’s first modern shea butter processing plant.
“I signed a contract to supply nuts to this plant, but I’m struggling to meet it because I can’t find enough,” Sangare told AFP.
Togo and Nigeria have also frozen raw nut exports. Ghana, for its part, plans a gradual ban starting in 2026.
Those decisions, combined with strong global demand — driven by shea butter’s use as a cheaper alternative to cocoa butter — have left the west African market under strain, according to consultancy N’Kalo.
As a result, prices have soared, while trade has faltered.
In Ivory Coast, the minimum farmgate price of 250 CFA francs ($0.44) per kilo has climbed to 350 CFA. Factory prices set at 305 CFA per kilo now range between 386 and 400 CFA, N’Kalo noted at the end of November.
- Slow market -
At least 152,000 women make a living from shea in natural production zones, according to the Ivorian agriculture ministry.
At the Chigata cooperative in Natio-Kobadara, near Korhogo, dozens of women toiled under a blazing sun to make butter.
Sacks of nuts were stacked in the yard, while mills whirred nonstop, churning out dense, chocolate-colored shea paste.
“Last year, we sold a kilo of shea butter for between 4,000 and 4,500 CFA francs — that’s something we have never seen in our lifetimes,” said Noulourou Assiata Soro, secretary general of the cooperative, which brings together more than 120 women.
She lamented, though, the lack of market outlets for their products.
However, “when it’s expensive, the market is slow,” said Tenin Silue, 49, who has been selling shea butter at Korhogo market for 10 years.
The 150-kilo sack of nuts that the cooperative used to buy for 60,000 CFA francs now costs 70,000, according to Soro.
The upward trend in prices is expected to continue in the coming months, marking the end of the harvest season in the west African shea market, where the supply of nuts remains very limited, according to N’Kalo.
Latest updates
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.