Honey market value chain
A well-differentiated honey market value chain is equally important for producers, the distributors as well as for the consumer to provide uniform quality and further to increase the income.
Ethiopia: Gemechis (2016) about the domestic honey market value chain of Ethiopia: Crude honey is sold to collectors (nearest town/village markets) by small scale beekeepers. They pass on a great amount of the product to whole sellers in bigger cities and to local tej breweries. The whole sellers act as distributors and sell the honey to retailers, tej houses, processors and consumers. Some beekeepers form marketing and producing cooperatives. They collect crude honey from members and sell the semi-processed product to processing companies or distributors. In Ethiopia, there is a lack on “good beekeeping practice”, thus, the cooperatives do not underlay quality controlling bodies, nor have business concepts and therefore suffer under quality loss and cannot compete with bigger companies (lack of proper collection, storage and transportation facilities). In addition, the domestic honey market has several problems: the smuggle and adulteration of honey bee products, complaints of consumers about increasing prices of honey products, while the beekeepers have the feeling that the business is not rewarding. [1] For local beekeepers, it is not common to separate table honey from bees wax and other compartments, but during the tej-brewing process, bees wax is separated as a byproduct that is passed on to bees wax collectors and exporters. Hence, they serve as important stakeholders in the bees wax business. [2]
Indonesia: According to a local scientist (Universitas Padjadjaran), fragments of a honey market chain exist, but work need to be done, to strengthen the value market chain. So far, beekeepers sell their products online in the form of bulk packaging by creating and marketing their own brand, or they offer it to collectors (i.e. distributors). In a next step, the collected products (honey, pollen, royal jelly, wax) will be further processed to adjust the quality of goods (flavor, water content, ...). Table honey will be sold in bigger cities situated around the particular farms.
References
- ↑ Gemechis, L. Y. (2015). Honey Production and Marketing in Ethiopia. Agriculture And Biology Journal Of North America, 7(5), 248-253. https://doi.org/10.5251/abjna.2016.7.5.248.253
- ↑ SNV/Ethiopia (2005). Strategic intervention plan on honey & beeswax value-chains, snv support to business organizations and their access to markets (boam).
