The stakeholders of the Ghana beekeeping and honey production fraternity have slated the 20th of May, which is a day set aside by the United Nations to celebrate Bees and other pollinators in the world, as a day to also create awareness for its beekeeping and honey industry. The maiden honey festival was celebrated under the theme: A Spotlight on Pollinators, Beekeeping and Honey Safety for Sustainable Livelihood and Biodiversity Conversation.
The event brought together stakeholders along the honey value chain on a single platform to share knowledge and deliberate on pertinent issues for promoting innovation and sustaining the honey industry in Ghana.
“The main purpose of the Ghana Honey Festival is to provide a single platform for producers, processors, consumers, and other relevant stakeholders to share knowledge and innovation for the growth of the industry, provide a national networking platform for the industry, and rally stakeholders to deliberate on bees and other pollinators and their critical role to society to enhance awareness and production”, Dr. Courage Adanu-Besah, the Coordinator Of The Ghana Apiculture Platform, GHANAP said.
He expressed that the purpose of the honey festival, is expected to generate the needed buzz to drive the industry and the energy generated would benefit all producers, processors, and consumers along the value chain.
The Director of CSIR-FORIG, Prof. Daniel A. Ofori, on behalf of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR-Ghana, hosted the maiden Honey Festival and International Bee Day Celebration, at the premises of CSIR-FORIG, Fumesua near Ejisu in Kumasi. In her welcoming address on behalf of the Director of CSIR-FORIG, Dr. Beatrice Darko Obiri said the full potential of the honey industry in Ghana is untapped and has remained hidden yet an important income and livelihood source for many actors in the value chain, especially rural producers across the country.
According to her, in 2019, global natural honey export was worth $1.99 billion with China leading while Africa’s share of the global honey trade was just 13% in 2016. She acknowledged the industry has been bedeviled with many challenges especially, quality standardized products with innovative packaging for both domestic and international markets. She entreated the stakeholders to pay particular attention to addressing the challenges in the industry to harness the potential of apiculture for both livelihood and environmental sustainability.
In a keynote address delivered at the festival, the Guest of Honor, Ps. Prof. Peter Kwapong of the University of Cape Coast, and the Founder and the Director of the International Stingless Bee Centre, recounted that honey is one of the main products utilized from beekeeping in Ghana.
He continued that the benefits of beekeeping were large to biodiversity sustainability, “the main benefit of beekeeping is not actually the honey, it is what we call ‘Pollination’ when you keep bees you are feeding the whole world. When you keep bees you are helping all flowering plants to survive or reproduce”, Prof said.
According to Prof, no matter what a farmer may do after land preparation, and planting and if there is no pollination, the farmer worked in vain and beekeeping is very important therefore, the country should do more to uphold it.
He opined that beekeeping is contributing immensely to the economic, social, and environmental life of people but it is bedeviled with a lot of skills like the improper way of harvesting honey by the farmers, mixing up bees grading honey by the farmers, and improper observation of hygienic protocols during processing and packaging by the farmers.
He urged the farmers, and the stakeholders to take advantage of the honey festival and international bee celebration to get the needed knowledge and skills to develop their honey and bee business.
“According to the various reports on the analysis of the Honey Market Size, Share and Trade, the global honey market size was valued at an estimated $9.21 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of between 5.2% to 8.2% by 2028 with a revenue forecast of around $17.34 billion”, Dr. Charles Dwamena, FMR Ambassador to Asia (China, North Korea, Mongolia, and Vietnam) expressed.
He explained that the major factor driving the market growth includes high demand for nutritious food products, such as honey, on account of rising awareness about the benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Dr, Dwamena however said in order for Ghana to develop and grow the honey industry and benefit from the growing global market, the integrity of the product’s quality remains essential.
“It is paramount for the stakeholders in Ghana’s honey market to invest more in research that holistically determines the economic and social value of the sector to the extent where such data can influence and shape government’s policy positions”, he added.
He commended the organizers for making the Ghana Honey Festival and International Bee Day possible to educate, train and deliberate on the importance of honey and beekeeping to the ecosystem.
Speaking on behalf of the Ashanti Regional Director of Agriculture, Dr. David Anabam, the Ejisu District Director of Agriculture added that due to the increasing demand for honey and the traders’ intent to meet the huge demand for their selfish gains as a result of consumer taste for quality natural sweetness in place of the natural sugar, honey has become one of the adulterated food products on Ghanaian and global market.
He commended the organizers of the programme for introducing an alternative sustainable livelihood programme that will broaden the income-generating activity base for the farmers and alleviate poverty. “I hope that at the end of this maiden festival many of our farmers and teaming youth will get something to do to earn decent life”, he said.
In his closing remarks, Dr. Courage Besah-Adanu noted; “It is exciting that on this day and forward, the Ghana Honey production and beekeeping industry, all relevant stakeholders and interests working on the operations of Bees and other important pollinators, now have a day (20th May), we can now call OUR DAY!”, he gladly pronounced.
He called on all industry players to rally behind the flag of Ghana on the 20th of May each year to deliberate with reason, Network, Communicate, and project new innovations and frontiers for a common future in providing quality and safe honey products for Ghana and the World.
Finally, Dr. Besah-Adanu took the opportunity to thank the Danish Government, (DFC), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the CSIR-FORIG for the various support in Kind and Cash for the Honey Festival and International Bee Day Celebration.
