Why Honey

Promoting sustainable beekeeping for community development
Biodiversity
Mosselbay
South Africa

Our main aim is to support and train beekeepers in all aspects of beekeeping and to establish a constant supply of quality natural raw honey with emphasis being placed on Fynbos Honey. This is to be achieved by assisting existing small scale beekeepers in rural areas to grow their beekeeping to semi commercial scale, being 100 plus hives. Should areas be identified that has good bee forage and no beekeepers are present we shall train community members, ideally women, to become beekeepers.

Why Honey support these beekeepers through ongoing training, access to the RIGHT standard of beehives and equipment and mentoring in order for the beekeepers to grow to semi commercial scale.

Should the guidelines, as set out by Why Honey, be followed by the beekeepers we guarentee a minimum price and market for the honey.

At present the focus is on identifying the various training projects that has been conducted over the past 3 years in the Southern Cape area in order to find potential candidates to be assisted to grow to semi commercial scale. the various beekeepers are to be assisted to form co-operatives.

Eco-Inclusive Impacts
The enterprise empowers the community to become beekeepers or assistants and to generate additional income. The initiative also helps to protect local biodiversity.
  • Empowering community members to become beekeepers or assistants and are able to generate additional income.
  • Providing training for female beekeepers.

 

  • Helping to protect local biodiversity as the bee colonies ensure thorough pollination of the natural flora.
  • Ensuring the survival of local bee swarms and protection for bees’ habitat.

  • Supporting local economic development in areas where no industries are located.
  • Scaling up by expanding the project to other regions or by selling quality swarms to individuals who are not members.

Partners

Why Honey is a start-up aiming to assist emerging beekeepers in the rural areas to develop sustainable beekeeping projects. And to build a fair-trade supply chain for honey and apiculture products by training women bee-keepers to become micro-entrepreneurs, and giving them assistance in organizing themselves into cooperatives. The initiative will also handle beehive construction, processing and the sale of the honey.

Why Honey? manages the initiative, identifies suitable candidates as beekeepers, carries out training and is responsible for sales and marketing for Fynbos honey and honey products.

The Mossel Bay Environmental Partnership makes the Oyster Bay Reserve available for practical bee education and training.

SEDA (the Small Enterprise Development Agency of the South African Department of Trade and Industry) provides beekeepers with training in business skills.

Andre De Jager is technical advisor and a specialist in propolis.