Beekeepers are struggling to meet the growing honey demand in the local market
Beekeepers are struggling to meet the growing honey demand in the local market, adulterated products continue to find their way into the market.
According to the official figures, Rwanda produces over 5,600 tonnes of honey every year, less than a third of the national demand estimated at 17, 400 tonnes.
Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) figures indicate that the sector is largely dominated by the traditional log hives, which give less production compared with langstroth beehives and top bar beehives.
RAB counts more than 83,000 beekeepers in the country who own 465,000 beehives, among them 300,000 traditional beehives (log hives), 75,000 langstroth beehives and 90,000 top bar beehives.
A farm gate price of honey currently stands around Rwf3,000 per kilogramme, while the processed and packaged honey is around Rwf5,000 a kilogramme on the local market.
According to the beekeepers, honey production is constrained by various factors which continue to threaten the population of bees in the country, among them, intensive pesticide uses in crops as well as climate change which causes heavy and stormy rains which kill bees.
Rwanda Federation of Bee Keeping Cooperatives blame the high costs of operation, which hinders the increase of honey production.
“Some beekeepers cannot afford modern beehives as one cost between Rw50,000 and Rwf100,000,” Jean Damascène Ntaganda, chairperson of Rwanda Federation of Bee Keeping Cooperatives told Rwanda Today.
With the gap between supply and demand getting wider, adulterated honey is making its way on the market. Within the recent joint investigation of Rwanda’s Food and Drug Administration and the Rwanda Investigation Bureau throughout 76 places and six factories, five substandard varieties of honey have been impounded on the local market out of 23 varieties inspected.
Following the public outcry among other motives, Rwanda’s FDA has recalled the adulterated honey products called honey HIVE.