Beeswax

Ethiopia: Not only the honey, but also the bees wax business has great potential in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the third biggest bees wax producer in the world and number one in Africa with approximately 3,000 harvested t/year, while the experts estimate the production potential at 50,000 t/year. The current production rate per hive is 0.95 kg/year, with the major yield of beeswax out of the crude harvest of honey and other bee products from traditional (wax portion: 8.0-10.0%) rather than modern hives (0.5-2.0%). Despite the greater amount of bees wax yield in traditional hives, it is from lower quality, due to the more difficult purification process (increased amount of foreign material). Ethiopian bees wax’ quality from all over the country was evaluated, and in general, the quality is at a similar level as the rest of the world, but adulteration of the product constantly increases. The reasons are not only processing companies with unsuitable facilities for bees wax processing, but also the adulteration with cheaper fats (e.g. animal fat, plant oil and paraffins). Another quality-lowering factor are tej-breweries. Most of the harvested honey goes directly into tej-brewing and during the process, bees wax is separated as a byproduct (sefef) and will be sold to bees wax exporters and collectors, but the quality of this byproduct is low. In 2005, there were 16 registered companies who export bees wax, but only 4 of them are active, due to a lack of supply, not to a lack of international need. So far, there is no published data on the use of bees wax in Ethiopia, but it is believed, that a significant amount of bees wax is used to produce candles for orthodox churches. For further information on the beeswax' import and export quotes see: "Import/Export of honey bee products".

Indonesia: Prior to 1996 and 1997 official data on the import and export quotes were provided to FAO, respectively. Ever since, the trading quotes of beeswax were based on estimations (see: "Import/Export of honey bee products"). In general, there is no information on the bees wax business in Indonesia: what is the production, is there a general use for bees wax, is it even harvested, is there a market chain, ... According to a local scientist (Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia) bees wax is widely used for the production of cosmetics. He further claims, that to purchase bees wax, a direct order has to be made to the particular beekeeper.