Written by Brian Burrell - Horizon Ethiopia Staff Writer
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Driven by the steady
demand created by devotion to tej, apiculture has a history as long and
vast as the disaggregated forms of traditional production that dot
rural areas of Ethiopia. But as access to the hinterlands expands,
natural potential resulting from flora diversity and quality is more
deeply understood and production is centralized, the industry is slowly
transforming into one that is gaining the experience and capacity to
push its products overseas. Haile Giorgis Demissie, General Manager of Beza Mar Agro-Industry,
is one of the catalysts for this sweet revolution as his company is
leading the charge with innovative approaches such as organic
certification and capacity building programs to work closely with the
thousands small-producers it depends on. ACX Staff Writer Brian Burrell sat down with Haile to get to the bottom of the buzz around this burgeoning industry.
Addis Connexion: What is your personal background? Haile Giorgis Demissie: I was born in 1959 (EC) in Addis Ababa and attained my BA in Economics from Addis Ababa University. After beginning an import-export company in 2000 I established Beza Mar Agro-Industry, named for my first daughter, in 2003 focused on the processing of honey and beeswax for the domestic and export markets. I am now pursuing my correspondence MBC from Indian Mandarin University.
How has Beza Mar grown since its inception? To envision large-scale processing five years ago was a ‘dark plan’. The sector was characterized by backwards technology and lack of sanitation and remote area production sites. Upon visiting sites upwards of 700Km from Addis we were encouraged, however, by the potential in terms of quality taste as well as the government’s adopting its Agricultural Development Led Industrialization (ADLI). After obtaining an almost two million Birr loan from the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) we imported machinery for a processing from India and began supplying the local market in 2005. Our initial paid-up capital of 1.7 million Br has now grown to over five million Birr, and the more growth potential is present.
Has Beza Mar’s Production Process Changed? At the beginning we only focused on processing the products purchased from hundreds of small-scale poor farmers. But we couldn’t obtain the desired volumes and quality was variable. We have broadened our involvement to include the farming stages, working with the farmers to ensure quality and are in the process of securing land for our own farms: 500Ha in Oromia, 100Ha in Southern and three hectares in north Amhara regions. Have any organization helped along the way? We have had support from BOAM to give trainings to about 400 apiculture farmers to enable them to increase yields and improve consistency and quality and will continue these mutuallyally beneficial programs, expanding them to reach around 1,000 farmers. Also, USAID has supported us to exhibit products in Chicago (2006) and New York (2007), and GTZ helped us to exhibit in Germany.
What relationships were established in the United States (US)? These were eye-opening experiences as many companies were surprised to learn of Ethiopian honey and had preconceptions of a drought-ravaged country but were impressed by the quality. We are currently in negotiations with one company in Michigan and others in the US and Europe. The biggest problem is volume as the technical and financial capacities to produce the quantities demanded by the buyers are insufficient. Although Ethiopia is the largest producer in Africa and 10th in the world, its 43,000 tons annually is way below its estimated potential of 140,000 tons. But with the problems US bee farmers are facing with the disease that has around 30% of their bees, their will be a gap to fill that we are trying step into.
What steps has Beza taken to become attractive to US buyers? We are the first to attain BCS organic certification for beeswax in Ethiopia and also have ISO 9000 and HACCP certification. Not only are these attractive to buyers but also helpful to improve our management systems.
Isn’t organic certification costly?
BCS requires an audit every six months costing around 2,000 British Pounds (40,000 Br). Fortunately, Enterprise Ethiopia covered 75% of the initial costs. But if you look at current production, most of it is already organic, as it is distant from industry and small-scale but it just isn’t certified yet.
How do you use “Made in Ethiopia” to pursue export markets Beza Mar products? Buyers are interested in the potential to use the fact that we help poor farmers to market products. We have just received accreditation in the EU in February 2008 and many companies are interested to take advantage of this.
What is Beza Mar’s relationship with other companies in the sector? I am currently the chairman of the Ethiopian Honey and Beeswax Producers and Exporters Association (EHBPEA). Our main focus is to share experience and technical capacity. We are currently competing in a small domestic market but are looking to collaborate to fill big export orders.
What is Beza Mar’s current capacity? We have a capacity to produce 100 tons of certified organic and 250 tons normal semi-processed (only separating wax) honey annually. Our table honey capacity is about 120 tons and orgqanic beeswax reaches around 30 tons. While our sales are only about 900,000 Birr annually from around 30,0000Kgs and we are constrained by financial capacity and even imported glass (from India) packaging, once exports begin this should
