The Federal Government on Tuesday decried the $100 million spent annually on Honey importation, revealing that some of the imported honey is of low quality and could affect the vital organs of those who consume it.
Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture made the disclosure at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Government and ApiEXPO Africa.
Ogbeh said,”The Federal Government would support bee farmers with more beehives so as to enable them produce honey so that they can address the importation of honey.”
“Bees do a lot of work for us. Apart from assisting us with honey, they also pollinate our plants and like Albert Eisten said, if bees are kept away from planet earth for four years, human being cannot survive.We must grow what we eat, for it has become unsustainable for the huge amount of money we spend on importation of food,” Ogbeh explained.
The ApiEXPO is the apex apicultural expo in Africa which is the most popular business and learning event in the apiculture sector in the continent,targeted at giving wider exposure to those in the Bee industry.
BusinessDay findings reveal that lots of Bee Keeping is still being done in traditional and unprofessional manners. The organisers said the ApiEXPO would bring lots of exposure to bee keepers, educating them on the new technologies and how to be globally competitive in Bee business.
“They are going to be exposed to global platforms,wherein global manufacturing firms that has developed the bee value chain business would come as a guide.The local processors and bee keepers would be guided properly to advance their business”Adesina Kwande,an official from the ApiEXPO organisation told BusinessDay.
The traditional bee keepers would see the need to develop their business in line with modern trends and techniques.They would also develop the value chain and have opportunities to interact more with global companies and see how to match-make their activities.”
In the same vein, Ademola Adesina, Chairman Nigeria Apiculture platform told BusinessDay that the exhibition has started attracting big firms from the honey industry from various parts of the world.
“Immediately Nigeria was announced as the host of the upcoming ApiEXPO in Rwanda, global honey companies started expressing of interest in respect to playing a major part in the exercise,”he said.
“If Rwanda could host the event and pay for the hosting rights, Nigeria would do better , “he added.
Nigeria has a huge market for honey business and experts had argued that it would be a huge opportunity for the the players in the industry to re-strategies and move the bee industry to a greater height,since this is the first time Nigeria is hosting the event.
“The quickwin for Nigeria is that foreign exhibitors would come to Nigeria and see what Nigeria have in addition to exchange of technologies”Yakman Moi Wuyep,the Managing director for Barg Natural Honey told BusinessDay.
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