Why Tanzania needs to develop its beekeeping sub-sector now

Beekeeping in Tanzania is still a nascent industry for rewarding investment. It has the potential of providing exports of more than 5,000 tonnes of honey and all of its beeswax produced.

However, it is currently being handled by individual beekeepers that lack both adequate finance and appropriate beekeeping skills. Also, there is no organized marketing system for both local and foreign markets to encourage development and expansion of the industry.

More than 90 per cent of honey produced is consumed locally, mainly for making local brew and medicine with only 5 per cent being exported. Therefore, strategic investment in the sub-sector will provide both employment opportunities and raw material for industries.

Beekeeping as an economic activity has been practiced for ages in Tanzania. It contributes to the national economy by generating about $19 million per annum and employing more than 2 million people.

Also, beekeeping makes available food and medicinal values, have a significant contribution in bio-diversity and promotes agricultural production through pollination.

Moreover, more than 50 per cent of Tanzania is covered by forests suitable for beekeeping. This potential is until now not fully exploited, and the industry is non-commercially operative.

Similarly, bee products have been of great importance in manufacturing industries for ages. For example, honey has been used as a natural sweetener in both food and beverages. Also as a raw material in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industries.

Furthermore, the demand for bee products has been increasing globally. But the supply has been on decline. Therefore, since Tanzania is moving towards the middle income status through industrialisation, this calls definitely for a strategic thinking of how to close the demand gap for pure, natural bee products, honey in particular.

Honey market potential

Honey is the most popular natural sweetener in the world. According to the International Trade Centre report on honey sub-sector mapping of 2015, the global trade in bee products is estimated to be $600 million per year.

Due to its miscellaneous use, and increasing awareness levels and health consciousness among the consumers, leading to increasing demand for healthy and natural food products, the worldwide consumption of bee products: honey, pollen, royal jell, propolis, bee venom, and beeswax is so huge that supply can barely cope with demand.

This provides an important opportunity for investment in both beekeeping and bee product processing industries.

Tanzania is endowed with a multi-flora vegetation favourable for beekeeping. Also, it has high population of both stinging and stingless bee colonies. This makes it be among countries in the world with a high production potential of bee products especially honey and beeswax. But, in Tanzania, the sub-sector is still served by poor rural people who have limited capacity in both skills and capital.

Similarly, Tanzanian honey is known all over the world due to its natural and organic nature compared to honey from other countries. It has received a high demand in many countries in Europe like Germany, Holland, England, and Belgium.

Also, it has high demand in the Middle East, United Arab Emirates (UAE) in particular, and China. However, the export of Tanzania honey to the global market has been on decline despite the rising demand and increased investment in beekeeping by various stakeholders.

For example, according to the International Trade Centre report of 2015 on honey sub-sector mapping, exports from Tanzania to the EU declined from 385 MTs to 327 MTs, with Belgium and Germany being the primary buyers.

It should be noted that, Zambia was the largest African supplier to the EU, exporting 518 MTs mostly to Belgium. Processed Tanzanian honey is officially exported to Kenya, Uganda, Oman, India, Belgium and Germany. Honey that is exported to India is mainly for industrial use.

This shows that, beekeeping in Tanzania is still a virgin sector to be utilised with all the potentials if invested strategically. However, to commercialize the sector, there are some beekeeping gaps that need to be addressed.

Beekeeping demand gaps

Beekeeping and honey-hunting have informally been practiced across many generations in Tanzania: from hunting and gathering, the coming of Arabs and the colonial eras.

In 1949, the British colonial government officially formed a department responsible for beekeeping within the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1998, the National Beekeeping Policy (NBP) was formulated, and the beekeeping sector was then relocated to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, within the department of forest and beekeeping.

The implementation of the NBP was backed by the Beekeeping Act of 2002 and the ten-year national beekeeping programme of 2001 – 2011. These efforts were intended to professionalise the sub-sector so that it can sustainably contribute to the socio-economic development and environmental conservation. Also, they were designed to increase hive productivity and export earnings from sales of honeybee products.

Furthermore, several projects like the Beekeeping Support Project – Kigoma (BSPK), and programmes like the Beekeeping Development Programme (2007 – 2010); and the National Beekeeping Support Programme (2001 – 2011) have been implemented by the government, development partners and the private sector. These initiatives aimed at showing the social and economic potential of the beekeeping sector, and to develop beekeeping activity into a commercial operating sector.

Despite these efforts, the impact on the ground is insignificant: rural beekeepers remain local and relatively poor. Also, hive productivity (quality and quantity) is still below average, and production of other products apart from honey and beeswax have not been introduced.

For example, the sector is utilising only 7 per cent and 3 per cent of its production and export capacities respectively in honey and beeswax. However, records from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism shows that, an average hive productivity is less than 1kg of honey.

“Hon Speaker, in year 2017/18, the Tanzania Forest Services collected 6,519 kilos of honey and 218 kilos of beeswax from 143 apiaries containing 9,448 hives” Dr Hamisi Kigwangallah, Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism said in his 2018/2019 budget.

This definitely shows that, the sector is still facing some specific gaps that affect its development and commercialization. Some of the gaps include: low productivity, lack of business mind-set among the beekeepers, and inconsistencies in quality of processing and packaging.

Other gaps are lack of differentiated products, varied quality of packaging materials, and lack of innovation. Similarly, testing and certification regimes are not harmonized and are time consuming, poor trade facilitation, and training on commercial beekeeping affects the performance of the sector. Moreover, legal and policy issues, environmental changes, gender issues, pests and predators, and extension services are some cross-cutting issues to be addressed.

These gaps can be grouped into four major categories to include: productivity – the amount of bee products per colony; quality – the non-adulteration of bee products; knowledge – technical know-how and extension services; and market – access to potential and profitable markets. However, since the demand for bee products is higher than supply, therefore, increased quantity (productivity) and improved quality are key success factors for beekeeping commercialisation in Tanzania.

It is then important to mention that, investors in beekeeping sector, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism should observe two important steps in addressing beekeeping demand gaps.

The first step is to increase productivity (quantity) and quality of bee products within the country and niche markets. And secondly, to create access to relevant markets, disseminate market information and make the Tanzania honey visible at various markets.

It should however, be noted that, the best quality honey is made by bees and kept in combs. And productivity can be achieved if colony selection will be made, and colony management is in place. Actually, to get good and enough honey, three aspects are important: enough forage (flowers and water), productive colonies, and proper management of bee colonies or apiaries.

Nicholaus Tutuba is from School of Business at the Mzumbe University in Morogoro