Routes to market

To build profitable enterprises, beekeepers must have access to fair and accessible markets for their produce. We make this happen for the beekeepers we work with by building robust supply chains and connecting them to markets.

We have developed honey traceability systems to ensure transparency and honey quality assurance, in the supply chain. Honey traceability means beekeepers can offer honey, with proven origin, to buyers, an essential part of building sustainable honey trade.

126kgs

beekeepers registered onto our traceability system in Southwest Ethiopia in 2024

11,902kgskgs

honeycomb bought by the Honey and Beeswax Trade Centre in Ghana in 2024

374%

increase in honeycomb bought by the Honey and Beeswax Trade Centre since 2022

Traceability System

Registering beekeepers onto the traceability system in Southwest Ethiopia

Over the past few years Bees for Development has been refining a traceability system designed to work in remote areas with no internet connection but that can give near live traceability data to honey buyers looking to buy honey produced through our projects.

In use in Ghana since 2022, the system launched in Southwest Ethiopia in 2024 with 126 beekeepers registering. We can tell that these beekeepers produced 7,871kg of honeycomb, which sold for ETB 127,050 (c. £12,000). Data collected from the beekeepers is sent along with the honey to the buyers, demonstrating the provenance and quality of the product at each step of the process.

If any issues arise with the honey, the traceability system can be used to prove where the problem occurred and who might need additional training to prevent it occurring again. In addition, the data that the traceability system provides to buyers encourages more interest in their honey and better prices.

Honey and Beeswax Trade Centre, Ghana

Registering honey for sale at the Honey and Beeswax Trade Centre

Registering honey at the Honey and Beeswax Trade Centre in Ghana

The building we started in 2022 was completed in 2024, and the Honey and Beeswax Trade Centre in Donkorkrom finally has ceilings, floors, windows, a borehole and plumbing. This incredible asset serves the local community across the Afram Plains by providing a ready market for all honey which meets the accepted quality standard.

Beekeepers are encouraged to register with the Honey and Beeswax Trade Centre, so they receive buckets at harvest time and money when they sell. Payments are made using mobile money – safer and quicker than using cash. All beekeepers are trained in quality standards and are required to adhere to the Centre’s strict traceability system – which has been designed to be as simple as possible. Whilst beekeeping training provides the ‘push’ of production, the Centre provides the ‘pull’ of the market – and for many beekeepers the ‘pull’ is all they need.

In 2024, the Honey and Beeswax Trade Centre bought 11,902kg of honeycomb and paid out GHS 297,555 (£16,065.80) to 106 beekeepers – 21 women and 85 men.

Plans are underway to invest in brand development, introduce more value-added products, and develop new market outlets.

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Case Study

Belay Gerito, 42 is from the Duyina Kebele in Andracha, Southwest Ethiopia. He is a member of the Shenobegati cooperative.

Belay has been a beekeeper most of his life, he is skilled in climbing high into the forest canopy to place beehives and collect honey.

In spite of this Belay has only ever been able to use beekeeping as a small fraction of his household income, most of which comes from growing coffee. Without a steady market available for his honey he didn’t see the benefit of growing his beekeeping beyond a few hives, even with the support of beekeeping projects in the region who donated top-bar beehives to help beekeepers expand.

With the Transform project helping cooperatives in Anderacha create stronger honey markets for the last two years Belay is now expanding his beekeeping for the first time in decades.

In the 2025 main harvest period he produced 450kg of honey and has built more than 100 beehives, many of which have been colonised. The income he received from his honey sales has for the first time become a major part of his finances and is allowing him to expand and grow.