Quality Focused Apiculture Sector Value Chain Development in Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia is an “apiculture country” with more than 10 million honey bee colonies. Ethiopia is also a “honey country”; the annual honey and beeswax production potentials are 550,000 and 50,000 metric tons, respectively, with about one tenth actually produced. Since 2008, Ethiopia is EU “third country” listed for the export of honey. However, the national research system identified serious bottlenecks, such as traditional smallholder level production with very low productivity and problematic supply chain; quality issues, including adulteration; lack of access to credit; constrained input supply chain and input quality issues. This paper illustrates how quality defects have been addressed in a quality focused value chain development (VCD) approach, with focus on: creating a favorable policy ground; implementing regional, national and continental multi-stakeholder-platforms (MSPs) for dialogue; information and knowledge sharing and sector advocacy; strengthening supportive sector organizations along the value chain; networking and market intelligence, including exposition and conference organization; expansion of research centers and activities; laboratory qualification for international accreditation. Many components are implemented through the largest national apiculture sector development programme called Apiculture Scaling-Up Programme for Income and Rural Employment (ASPIRE), which transfers innovations to more than 30,000 beekeepers. Among others, ASPIRE was instrumental in qualifying national testing facilities, which in turn led to product quality improvement. However, more action is required in the fields of business-to-business (B2B) linkages, research, education and training, as well as in making so far voluntary practices mandatory. This also calls for full traceability and routine quality testing along the value chain. Key