THE HONEY TRADE IN GHANA
Kwame Aidoo

This page is the complete text of a paper presented at the Bees for Development Honey Trade Workshop held in Dublin, Ireland in August 2005.

You can also download this paper as a PDF document here

© Kwame Aidoo

INTRODUCTION

Background to Bees & Beekeeping and Honey production in Ghana

Man’s dealings with honey dates back to biblical times when Samson found a bee colony in the rib cage of a lion. Honey production and marketing in Ghana like elsewhere in the world have their origins from honey hunters. And throughout the years in every part of the world where there are wild colonies of bees, honey from beekeepers is sold alongside those from hunters. About 60% of the total annual honey production on the Ghanaian market comes from the harvesting of wild colonies of the West African honeybee. The wooded savannah belt is the richest production area. Honey from traditional beekeepers account for just about 2% of the honey trade in the country. This low input from traditional beekeeping is due to the unfortunate fact that the generation that practised it has become very old and younger ones are not interested. Remnants of clay pots, straw and log hives can only be found in traditional areas where these had been used to keep honeybees many years ago.

The contribution of modern or improved beekeeping to honey production started in the 70s when the when the top-bar hive was was introduced in Ghana. The Technology Consultancy Centre of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi played a leading role in this event. Currently many beekeeping projects have been carried out by development organizations to improve the income levels of rural communities. These include World Vision International (WVI), Adventis Relief Agency (ADRA), TECHNOSERVE; ETC Ghana now has about 5000 beekeepers with an average of five hives per person. Working on an average yield of 14kg honey per beehive per year, beekeepers provide about 70 metric tonnes of honey on to the Ghanaian market.

Honey Quality
The quality of the honey on the Ghanaian market has a direct relationship with source of production (from wild hunters or beekeepers) and the method of extraction.

Honey from wild hunters
Wild honey always is exposed to lots of smoke during harvest and again at processing time. At harvest, the honeycombs may be exposed to excessive smoke from the torches of the hunters that are used in killing the bees in order to have access to the nest. Another source of contamination of the honey may come from remnants of brood and other contents of the nest since the hunters remove everything in the bee nest. The honeycombs from the plundered bee nest may be processed in two main methods. The first is where the hunters squeeze the combs to drain the honey right there in the bush and in the middle of the night. The second processing method is even the worse of the two. It involves placing the combs in a metallic bowl that has perforations at the base. Ambers of fire are put on the combs to burn .The honey and beeswax are melted by the heat of the fire and are collected in another receptacle that is placed below the first. The honey so extracted is always black, sooty and of very low quality.

Honey from beekeepers
Honey from beekeepers may be good in quality if honeycombs are handled and processed properly. Very few beekeepers use heat to extract honey from combs. They ignorantly use the solar wax extractor to obtain the honey. The heat build-up in this equipment in the tropical sun is so high that it overheats the honey. Cold extraction methods of draining chopped honeycombs overnight and the use of a honey press produce the best quality honey.

HONEY DEMAND & SUPPLY PATTERNS

The Bulk buyer
The production period of honey in Ghana is between the months of November and April. Bulk buyers who are mainly women comb the main production areas and buy from both honey hunters and beekeepers. These in most cases determine honey quality based on only one factor: thickness. Light, free flowing honey is presumed diluted and may attract a lower price. The honey is bulked into 20l containers and transported to the urban areas and sold to retailers or bulk users.

Another category of bulk buyers is the bulk users of honey in the form of herbal and traditional medicine producers. These may have agents in the high production areas that supply their bulk needs.

Retailers/Peddlers
Retailers in towns and cities buy honey from these middlemen and sell them to consumers. The unit of measurement for sale is always the standard beer bottle (750ml) which weighs about 1kg. The buyer carries his/her own container and the honey is measured and poured off. Some retailers however do some form of packaging where the honey may just be poured into beer and Coca-cola bottles and sold along the street. Others may sieve and pack the honey into plastic jars and bottles and sell them to shops and supermarkets. These therefore form important links between producers and consumers.

Producer-packer
Two beekeeping businesses in Ghana, Farm Bee, Accra and Honey Centre, Saltpond produce honey and other bee products for direct sale to consumers. The two companies handle about 50 metric tonnes of honey per year.

HONEY UTILISATION

The bulk of the honey produced in Ghana is used in the production of herbal medicine. Several companies have been set up and are producing various kinds of medicines that have honey as an ingredient. Traditional medicine men also use honey in their preparations. A rough estimate will put the category of consumers at 60%. The rest of the production is used as sweeteners in food, baking and in cosmetics.

• as mixtures in traditional and herbal medicine
• as sweeteners in food and in baking
• in cosmetics especially hair conditioners

HONEY EXPORT

There is no record of any company exporting honey directly into the International Honey Market. However individual persons occasionally send an order outside Ghana. This may be in small quantities and is not documented. Production levels of beekeepers need to improve to the demands of export.

Great potentials exist for the development of a viable honey export system in Ghana. The production system in the country could easily make for organic certification.

IMPORTED HONEY

Two big supermarket chains in Accra have on their shelves imported honey that is brought in from UK, France and Italy (Table 1.0). These are neatly presented in clear glass jars. The honey is always very clear and golden in colour and is highly priced. The obvious target consumers are the expatriates. This imported honey is however sold alongside the locally produced.

Table 1.0: RETAIL PRICES OF IMPORTED & LOCAL HONEY IN SUPERMARKETS IN ACCRA GHANA (Source: Honey Centre, Saltpond June 2005)
 

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

Good quality honey production levels in Ghana could be improved greatly if the following measures are adopted:

1. IMPROVEMENT IN BEEKEEPING PRACTICES
   This should take the form of upgrading beekeepers in aspects such as colony management, and proper methods of harvesting and processing of honey.

   
   The harvesting of other bee products (beeswax, propolis, etc.) from the hive should be encouraged to improve income levels of beekeepers.

2. IMPROVEMENT IN HONEY HANDLING AND PACKAGING
   Beekeepers should be exposed to proper methods of handling and packaging of honey to meet international quality standards. Good quality packaging inputs should be available for use.

3. PRODUCTION AND MARKETING OF STINGLESS BEE PRODUCTS
   Beekeeping with stingless bees should be promoted to encourage the use of their high potent products (Honey, Pollen, Propolis etc.)

KSA
August 2005
 

Contact details:
Kwame Aidoo
Sasakawa Centre, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

Email: kaidooike@yahoo.com

  Download this paper as a PDF document (104kb .pdf file)