The following shows that while developed societies give lip-service to beekeeping in the third world, they often do not understand it.



The European Union (EU) market for honey and hive products offers an opportunity for innovative business and capital investment with good returns to traders in honey and beeswax. However, EU stringent regulations and standards for foods of animal origin have made it difficult for many third world countries to secure and sustain this lucrative market. Kenya was delisted from exporting honey and hive products in the year 2006. 

This was after failure to develop a comprehensive Residue Monitoring Plan as required by various EU Council Directives (96/23/EC) and Regulations that outline requirements for promoting the export of honey and hive products from Kenya. Kenya could therefore not guarantee that there would be no introduction or contamination with substances and pests that can cause adverse health effects or economic losses of concern to the European Union. 

Most of honey and hive products are from the small scale farmers who practice traditional beekeeping and use traditional log and modern hives. Approximate 80% of honey is from traditional log hives with the rest from Langstroth and Kenya Top Bar (Government of Kenya, 2008; Director of Livestock Production, 2014). There are 1,106,950 log hives, 201,257 Kenya Top Bar Hives and 116,585 Langstroth hives. 

The stringent rules on imports of the food products from third world countries make it difficult for most of potential exporters to exploit the European Union market especially for honey. The requirement on traceability of the products up to farm level is a challenge to the exporters who depend on small scale farmers for their supply. The farmers lack adequate skills on production and handling of the honey and hive products. Most of them do not take beekeeping as a commercial venture that demands adequate attention. They also have limited knowledge on regulations for exporting their honeybee products and lack protective gear.  


PROGRESS AND CHALLENGES TOWARDS LISTING OF KENYA IN EUROPEAN
UNION MARKET FOR EXPORT OF HONEY AND HIVE PRODUCTS
Bull. Anim. Hlth. Prod. Afr., Bee (2016), 271 - 273

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