Julius Barigaba
2 November 2008
Nairobi — Despite finding their way into the European Union, Uganda's honey exports have been falling off and Kampala remains at the bottom of the only four African countries that are eligible to export to the EU.
According to the Uganda Export Promotion Board, the country exported a total of 94.5 tonnes of honey to the Middle East, regional and European markets in 2005. The exports then dropped to 49.5 tonnes in 2006.
But in both instances, exports to Europe accounted for the smallest share. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics says that last year the volumes to Europe were only 1.3 tonnes.
"The market is wide open to us under the Everything-But-Arms initiative, but it is an opportunity that honey exporters have not taken advantage of," said Bosco Okello, an official at the export board.
Experts say the low volumes are due to low production as farmers face a number of challenges, ranging from failure to access credit to lack of market penetration, few collection centres and the outdated view, especially among the EU markets, that Ugandan honey is smoky and therefore of low quality.
But due to lack of access to credit, most farmers are unable to raise the minimum start up capital to invest in the honey business, and continue operating at subsistence level, according to Robert Ndyabarema, an apitrade expert, and executive director of the Uganda National Apiculture Development Organisation (Tunado), the umbrella body that brings honey farmers, processors and exporters together.
"The market is open, but we don't have the volumes. Most of the producers are doing it at subsistence level and so the volumes remain low," said Mr Ndyabarema.
A farmer requires at least 20 beehives for a start, in order to be economically viable, and this is not a small investment for the average bee farmer in the country.
The top range of the beehives, for instance, cost Ush150,000 ($85.7), although the lowest quality go for an average Ush10,000 ($5.7), on top of other inputs that could cost up to Ush200,000 ($114.2).
The EU granted Uganda certification after the country underwent the National Residual Monitoring Plan in 2005 to monitor the honey production and supply chain so as to meet the strict standards of the market.
Ethiopia, Zambia and Tanzania top the charts with higher volumes entering the lucrative EU market. Together with a few other countries on the continent that are in the honey export business, they account for just one per cent of the global honey demand, estimated at $3 billion.
Experts say if middle-income earners who have access to credit went into bee farming, for instance, and joined the value-addition chain, Uganda's volumes would grow substantially, particularly among the big honey consuming markets such as Europe and the US that are currently dominated by the big producers and exporters such as China.
A kilogramme of certified organic honey at the UK's Tesco supermarket chain goes for $10, for while the regional markets offer less than half this sum.
Farm gate prices on the other hand stand at $1.2 per kilo, an issue that has made value addition a must.
The bulk of Uganda's honey comes from the West Nile region in the north, where farmer groups raise the product from the traditional low-cost beehives, with an capacity to hold about 30 kg of honey.
The farmers are also linked to producers from Southern Sudan and eastern Congo, but more importantly, the region has a factory that does the initial processing.
Honey can be harvested once every four months. This means that with value addition, a farmer with 20 beehives could earn up to Ush3.15 million ($1,800) a year.
Among other things, the honey sector also faces challenges of lack of data. It is not clear how many farmers there are in the country, or even the production capacity of the bee farmers of Uganda.
Uganda conducted a livestock census mid this year, but its results, which will include the number of bee farmers, are yet to be published. Yet these are key elements that determine the sustainability and predictability of supply to an established market such as the US and EU.
Recently, Uganda hosted the first ever African apitrade expo, which brought together leading export firms on the continent as well as European-based honey buyers to tackle issues of value addition in order to raise Africa's volumes beyond one per cent.
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