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29, Mar 2024 -

Local honey businesses expanding rapidly in Central Africa

Local honey businesses expanding rapidly in Central Africa

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Developed by missionary philanthropist John Enright, Bee Sweet Honey, a co-op style honey initiative, is taking off in Zambia, and is improving lives for the 10,000 individuals already involved.

John Enright was born to Methodist missionaries, and has spent his entire life living and working in Congo and Zambia – as a pastor, teacher, pilot, and pioneer of sustainable economic development. He speaks several tribal languages and has a thorough grasp of African culture.

The Enrights fled Congo at the beginning of the war that began in 1998. They rebuilt their ministry near Ndola, Zambia, where they run the Kafakumba traing complex, the centre providing an informal vocational school, children’s school, and pastor’s school, among other varied programs.

John works alongside locals to build businesses that are profitable, reproducible, sustainable, and are not dependent on his future involvement. John’s successful business projects so far are Tilapia fish farming, growing aloe vera, banana plantations, livestock, and a woodworking shop.

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Although John has experienced success with the above projects, his honey project has defied the odds. The co-op business model project produced 100 tonnes of processed honey in 2014, with 200 tonnes estimated in 2015.

Interestingly, the idea for the honey project grew out of the woodworking business.

Fighting deforestation by making better local use of timber

A huge problem in Africa is the misuse of natural resources. Timber is being exported at an alarming rate, with very little of the real timber value improving the local economies. In Central Africa, the biggest threat to timber stands is not foreign markets, however – it is charcoal production.

 “Starving villagers are far removed from the world wide environmental debate,” John reminds us. “They are forced to find every means possible of feeding themselves and their families. In order to convince the Zambians to preserve the forests and natural resources, we must demonstrate how it is their best interest, both long and short term, to preserve the world around them.”

Another complication is that finished timber for use in construction or woodworking is traditionally processed by a few large and inefficient sawmills running outdated equipment. Poor infrastructure makes obtaining timber difficult and expensive for locals that lack disposable income.

In the early 1980’s, Wood-Mizer donated a sawmill to John’s mission work, this in turn spurring a small workshop that produces doors, and windows from local timber that were affordable to the community. In addition to providing for previously unobtainable commodity, it also showed how timber can improve lives without resorting to log exports or charcoal manufacturing.

John’s idea for the honey project resulted from brainstorming that saw scrap timber being used to build beehives.

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Bee Sweet Honey Company development

The beehive project started more than eight years ago, the first few years learning valuable lessons like how to hang the hives in trees to reduce the risk of theft, contamination by termites and honey badgers. They also perfected a hive design that maximises honey cleanliness and ease of collection.

Once the hive design was settled they proceeded with the business model that underpins all. Gradually, they developed a co-op business model to maximise the number of people who could benefit from the business, but also guarantee quality control and streamline distribution efforts of the final product.

Co-op members from local villages sign a contract that explains privileges and responsibilities, the number of hives managed by individuals varying from 25 up to as high as 250.

John’s team visits hives twice a year to harvest the honey and pay the participants based on the quantity of honey harvested. In 2014, more than $100,000 was paid out to participants.  

“We do not do beekeeping; we only do honey-gathering,” John shares. “As long as there are bees going in and out, you harvest it twice a year. It is a simple system, but then it allows them to send their kids to school, to put a tin roof on their house, and to have a decent living.”

‘Africa friendly’ Beehive Production

John employs 18 fulltime workers in the beehive production workshop, each hive costing approximately $20 to produce. They use offcuts from the woodworking shop and cheap scrap logs for the hives. The logs are split in half on the Wood-Mizer LT15 sawmill and then run through resaws to produce boards of consistent thicknesses. The fresh boards are then crosscut to the required lengths.

John’s reliance on the small sawmill to initial square material before use cannot be overemphasised. “The Wood-Mizer sawmills are giving us quality boards, cut to specific specifications, which allows us to make these hives. The sawmill is an essential link in a chain that has now become a substantial benefit to thousands of people.”

The air dried boards are placed in a vertical jig and glued on-edge to form the side panels of the hive.

“The bees don’t care if it’s pretty,” John laughs while demonstrating the gluing method. Once cured, the panels are cut to spec, packaged for shipment and then assembled on site to reduce shipping costs.

A metal jig included in the package allows for easy assembly while recycled metal wire locks all the parts in place. A hook from recycled rebar anchors the hive up in the tree and a simple rope pulley lifts the hive up and down.

Growth and the future

A short summary of the growth seen since the start of the project illustrates the potential it holds, organic certification for their honey from the European Union, promising further expansion internationally.   

As the 2015 summer approaches more than 10,000 individuals from all over northern Zambia will participate in the project with 50,000 beehives now in the field. Each hive produces approximately 15 kilos of honey annually. In the spring of 2014, +100 ton of honey was harvested, the bulk of it sold abroad with the rest becoming available to local markets at a discounted rate due to its local origins.

 “The honey project is unique,” John remarksOur share of the revenue goes into the foundation that then launches projects somewhere else and many other projects that we have launched – schools, clinics, and things like that.”

John’s workshop can produce components for more than two hundred hives each day when timber supplies are available. The target is 500 a day, a newly purchased Wood-Mizer TVS twin-vertical sawmill assisting John to reach this mark.

 “I could see the beehive project becoming a huge creator of wealth, empowerment, and a huge blessing throughout Africa.” John shares that that are groups currently replicating the honey project in Honduras, Ethiopia, Congo, and Malawi,” John shares.

“Africa needs people realise they are living in the garden of Eden,” John says. “This is a place where they can not only survive, but thrive! People are catching that vision.”

Note: Since the completion of this story, John Enright’s sawmill was laid to waste by a runaway bushfire.

Anyone interested in assisting John with the rebuild of the mill is welcome to donate money towards this worthy cause:

Please donate through:
www.kafakumba.org/#/pray-partner-give-go/give

Visit www.beesweetltd.com for more information.  
See the whole project in action: https://youtu.be/YfBF0zYTvCc

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By Jacob Mooney
PR and Marketing Specialist – Wood-Mizer Europe

Edited by Etienne Nagel
PR and Marketing Specialist – Wood-Mizer Africa

 

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