National Honey Expo begins

Agriculture Minister Tek Bahadur Thapa inaugurated the First National Honey Expo 2070 here today.
Organised by Nepal Central Honey Entrepreneurs’ Association in association with Directorate of Commercial Pest Development, the four-day exhibition aims at disseminating information on Nepali honey to promote the product that has huge potential.

Though, Nepal has a capacity to produce 10,000 tonnes of honey every year from one million beehives, the honey has not been able to see its export due to certification hurdles and quality assurance.

The minister, on the occasion, promised to promote honey in coordination with the private sector.
The expo has some 33 stalls showcasing a wide variety of local honey – one of the key export potential product under Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS) 2010 – that has not been exploited.
Nepal exported honey worth Rs 1.89 million in fiscal year 2011-12 but there was negligible export in the last fiscal year, according to the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC) statistics.
Amid declining export of honey, the expo aims at creating awareness to promote commercialisation of the sector, president of the association Dharma Raj Shrestha claimed.

The government is planning to spend eight million euros – that the European Union has pledged for NTIS products – to promote honey, informed joint-secretary at Ministry of Commerce and Supplies Toya Narayan Gyawali.

Nepal produces variety of honey – from flowers of mustard, millet, chiuri, rudilo, jamun or the herbals found in the wild – that also has medicinal value.

Honey expo from tomorrow

Nepal Central Honey Entrepreneurs’ Association – in an association with Directorate of Commercial Pest Development – is going to organise National Honey Festival in the capital from October 3.

The four-day exhibition is expected to help share information on domestic honey business and related activities, according to president of the association Dharma Raj Shrestha.
The association aims at strengthening relationships between consumers and the honey producers. “The expo will focus on creating an awareness of domestic honey and bee related products,” he said, adding that commercialisation of the sector would help boost the declining business in the international market. “Currently, Nepali honey has not been able to find the international market due to various quality related reasons.”
Nepali honey has a lots of potential to get international market besides the domestic market due to its quality but quality certification has been a key issues that has hit its export potential.

Honey certification on cards, to find passage to EU

Though honey exports offer potentially large opportunities, as demand and price for honey is growing internationally, certification has become a key barrier for export.

As Nepal produces large quantities of high quality uncontaminated honey which could fetch high prices, its certification to meet international standards will boost exports, said programme officer of UNDP Nabina Shrestha.

Despite being listed in the NTIS products list, in recent times, honey export has seen a plunge as according to Trade and Export Promotion Centre's (TEPC) data, the country had exported honey worth only Rs 5,000 in the eight months of the current fiscal year, against exports of Rs 215,000 in the same period of last fiscal year.

Organic Certification Nepal — in coordination with Micro Enterprise Development Programme (MEDEP) — is helping with the production, collection, and processing of honey, whereas the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control has also sent a Residue Monitoring Plan to the European Commission for its approval.

"Organic Certification Nepal — a registered national company linked to international certification agencies through an alliance called the Certification Alliance — is subcontracted to provide organic certification," it said, adding that honey produced under the strict supervision of certified inspectors is further certified as organic honey.

Organic honey produced especially in the far western region, has a large potential in international niche markets and can be sold at relatively high prices, but quality certification is a must for importers, especially the European Union (EU), which has stringent regulations relating to the production and trade of honey. Currently, only 40 non-EU countries are eligible to export honey to the EU.

The main global standards that apply to the export of honey are the Codex Alimentarius, which defines what honey is, sets maximum levels for moisture content, sugar, and water soluble solids, lists contaminants, and defines hygiene and other standards.

Both the Codex Alimentarius and the EU have set strict limits on the residues of veterinary drugs, pesticides, and heavy metals in honey and demand that exporting countries have systems in place to monitor residues. The EU requires monitoring for the presence of residues throughout production, collection, and processing.

As much of the honey produced in Nepal is organic or almost organic by default because of the low use of inputs, certification will help promote its export, Shrestha added.

Suppliers who want to export organic honey to the international market need to have their products certified as meeting organic production standards. The main purpose of organic certification is to assure quality and prevent fraud. Most organic certification is carried out by third party certifying agencies.

According to a MEDEP report, Nepal produces 10,000 tonnes of honey annually. An estimated 125,000 beehives have been installed by farmers.

Nepali honey can beat other competitors in the international market due to its unique flavour because of the climatic conditions and flora. "It has also improved the socioeconomic conditions of poor farmers," said Shrestha, adding that their increasing income has helped improve their living standard too.

According to a micro entrepreneur of Aalital in Dadeldhura, Yagya Bahadur Bohara, his economic condition has changed due to beekeeping that he started some 12 years ago. "I earn Rs 200,000 to Rs 250,000 annually, which has brought significant changes in my lifestyle," he said, adding that the increased income — apart from agriculture — has helped him take care of the education and health needs of his children. "I have also provided employment to three people."

 

Definition of honey

Honey is defined and described by the inter-governmental body for global food standards — the Codex Alimentarius Commission — as the natural sweet substance produced by honeybees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which the bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store, and leave in the honey comb to ripen and mature. Honey consists essentially of different sugars, predominantly fructose and glucose as well as other substances such as organic acids, enzymes, and solid particles derived from honey collection. The colour of honey varies from nearly colourless to dark brown. The consistency can be fluid, viscous or partly to entirely crystallised. The flavour and aroma vary, but are derived from the plant origin. — (Source: CAC 2001)

 

Production over the years

Year — Tonne

2004 — 577

2005 — 600

2006 — 650

2007 — 650

2008 — 1,000

2009 — 850

2010 — 1,100

(Source: Food and Agriculture Organisation 2012)

Lack of policy implementation hits honey promotion

Due to the lack of policy implementation, synergy among development partners helping honey producers, coupled with low consumption in the domestic market has hurt the honey market chain, said experts during an interaction on 'Honey value chain', organised by the Directorate of Commercial Entomology Development, Department of Agriculture, and Ministry of Agriculture Development, in support with the Ministry of Industry, and Micro-enterprise Development Programme under UNDP, here today.

"Though honey is a competitive and high value product, it has not been able to grab the attention of domestic consumers due to lack of awareness," said an officer at SNV Surendra Joshi. SNV is one of the development partners helping promote honey.

The per capita consumption of honey in Nepal stands at less than 50gm, which is very low as compared to other countries, he said, adding that lack of policy implementation has hit the promotion of honey.

The country had, some seven years back, brought a policy to promote honey and reduce poverty, but government agencies failed to implement it making people suffer.

"Despite the policy being in place for the last seven years, honey could not be promoted due to lack of ownership and institutionalisation," said joint secretary at the ministry of agriculture development Prabhakar Pathak.

"Besides increasing domestic consumption, honey also needs a market strategy to boost exports," he said, adding that it could be linked to the Agriculture Development Strategy for a better response.

Likewise, presenting his paper, an official at the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC) Rajendra Singh said that the country has the potential to produce over 10,000 tonnes of honey. "But an unorganised supply chain, scattered production, and low supply capacity have made honey export cumbersome," he added.

According to TEPC data, Bangladesh is the key market for Nepali honey, as it had imported $79,000 worth of honey from Nepal in 2011, of the total $83,000 worth of honey exported from Nepal. "Nepal had exported a total of 33.442 tonnes of honey in 2011," the data revealed.

"Though Japan has offered zero tariff to Nepal for honey export, we have failed to exploit the Japanese market," Singh added. "Nepal can export honey to Belgium, Germany and the US as these markets have been importing honey in increased amounts."

The total global export volume of honey stands at 500,000 tonnes, whereas China alone exports 99,988 tonnes and Argentina exports some 72,356 tonnes, according to data. Similarly, global imports grew by 15 per cent in value and four per cent in quantity from 2007 to 2011.

However, Nepal needs to commercialise the development and promotion of honey to increase its competitive strength, establish resource centres — including queen breeding — establish accredited Testing and Certification Laboratory of international standards, update laws, regulations and strictly implement for quality and standard, organise training programmes on production and processing, use of insecticides and pesticides, and sensitise farmers on the benefits of beekeeping, pollination and demerits of pesticides.