Bees Abroad UK Limited

Thanks to the generosity of the States of Guernsey, Spring 2009 saw the launch of the second phase of our Ugandan project close to Lake Albert. So for eighteen months now, the Emesco Development Foundation, our local partners, have been working to make life more bearable for wretchedly poor farmers, most of them former residents of war-torn Congo or migrants from more densely populated districts.

 

I was tremendously impressed by what I saw during my latest monitoring trip. A further 180 villagers have signed up to the project and been trained in different aspects of modern beekeeping. Each of their 17 groups has its own smoker and protective veils improvised cheaply from maize sacks and mosquito netting. Now, using just sticks, bamboo and a dash of mud, they are providing themselves with top-bar hives at a startling rate. Since the project began, close to 2,000 of these modern hives have been made and bees have taken up residence in most of last year’s.

 

To date the beneficiaries have been able to sell us over two tonnes of honey. We have processed and bottled nearly all of this and so far finding stores and supermarkets keen to stock our jars of Family Pride honey has proved relatively easy — which is hardly surprising: modesty does not prevent me saying that our product is cleaner, more attractively labelled and better tasting than any of our competitors’. However, we have set ourselves the ambitious target of buying at least another three tonnes before the end of next May and are well aware that if we are to dispose of such a quantity we must do all we can to search out additional retail outlets in towns further afield.

 

430 villagers — nearly half of them women and many completely new to beekeeping — have joined the project since it started. Because each represents a household which has, on average, six members, over 2,500 of Africa’s neediest citizens now stand to gain from this project. However, the actual extent to which they are benefiting financially ought to be quantified in some way, and this is something I shall try to do during my next visit in April.

 

As with all our projects, sustainability is the key. If everything were to grind to a halt as soon as the villagers are left to their own resources — as left they must be when, inevitably, the funding ceases — then nothing truly worthwhile would have been achieved. Since it is the buying and marketing operations which will ensure long-term viability, the beneficiaries are already preparing themselves to take these over. A team of their leading and most enthusiastic members is now assuming more managerial responsibilities and it will not be so very long before they have the confidence and capacity to run a registered producer association to which the whole enterprise may be transferred. However, we cannot expect to reach this point until late in 2010, which is why we are desperately anxious that Guernsey or some other funder will agree to support the venture for a third twelve-month period.