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Beekeeping Enterprise Development Guide 1
Bees for Development
2009 Code BEDG1
Beekeeping in Uganda is successful and profitable, however it is carried out mainly at a subsistence level where low volumes of honey are harvested and most trade is informal. The volume of honey traded is unknown because of the difficulties of monitoring and measuring informal trade. Benefits to beekeepers clearly exist otherwise they would cease to manage their bee colonies. However, our concern is that beekeeping is not alleviating poverty on a significant scale, despite the low start up costs and high demand for honey.
This Guide proposes that changes in the way that trade happens are key to raising the contribution of beekeeping to economic development in Uganda. It provides information and analysis to help design interventions to bring about these changes, and support beekeepers in Uganda.
This Guide explains the importance of creating direct links between beekeepers and buyers and how this can be achieved. It is not about harvesting and processing honey, nor is it a beekeeping manual. The focus of the Guide is how to make beekeeping a business in Uganda, and topics concerned with the sale of bee products are central. Another feature of the Guide is emphasis on scale: developing an industry in which thousands of people can participate. This emphasis means looking at trade beyond the local area of the beekeeper, towards the wider market system and the way it works.
The Guide considers three main themes: Beekeeping as a business; Industry for thousands of beekeepers; The wider market system and trade to distant markets.
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