The ManicaPost
Post Correspondent
FOR 37-YEAR-OLD Janet Mutanda, beekeeping has run in her family for generations, but she never considered it a trade that she could venture into.
This has been the case with many Zimbabwean beekeepers who manage beehives to pass time and rely on roadside marketing of honey to supplement their incomes. Farmers fail to realise the potential in the lucrative apiculture (beekeeping) business, for both the local and export markets. The single mother of three has now taken up the family trade and sells honey by marketing it along the Mutare-Masvingo Highway in Chaseyama Village in Chimanimani West, about 83 kilometers out of Mutare.
Like many villages surrounding the Chiadzwa diamond fields, the socio-economic life in Chaseyama has been suffering from low economic activity in the aftermath of the Chiadzwa diamond rush of 2007 to 2009. Locals have been finding it difficult to return to traditional sources of income after the free for all diamond rush era ended.
Beehives are ubiquitous in the Chaseyama area, but locals never thought of value addition, only limiting themselves to roadside marketing of honey, in turn earning very little profits because of limited business along the highway.
However, a Government-led initiative is providing locals with alternative economic opportunities. Supported by the International Labour Organisation, the initiative is providing women with the skills to produce more honey, process it as well as the provision of basic skills on how to manage a business.
Mutanda is part of a group of 30 women from Chaseyama Village who have been supported to start Gen-Star Honey Farm. Through this co-operative, the women will operate a honey processing and value addition centre.
Some of the products that Mutanda and her partners intend to produce include, candle wax, cough syrups, and wines among many other medicinal concoctions derived from honey. “Although people appreciate our pure organic honey, most complain about our packaging and our methods of processing the honey. Potential customers say we must sell our honey in new sealed 375ml bottles, instead of the recycled containers we buy and clean ourselves. So I now see our group being able to package and brand our product in a more attractive way and even increase our productivity as we will receive new processing equipment,” said Mutanda.
ILO National Project co-ordinator, Mr Simbarashe Sibanda, said through this programme, the women in Chaseyama would be supported to produce more honey and linked to markets to ensure they get improved incomes.
He added that the honey sector had high growth potential, given the domestic and export demand, with high returns on investment of up to 45 percent for beekeepers. In retail outlets, 375ml of pure honey costs between $5.20 and $5.90, while value added honey products, like honey syrup range from $2.20 to $2.50.
The roadside marketers in Chaseyama sell their honey for $3, while some on a desperate day can go for as little as $2 just to make a few cents to take home.
