Africa Trade Fund approves funding for SNV to implement new apiculture project in Zambia

Honey and bee products are an important source of income for many rural populations in Zambia.

Approximately 35,000 households are involved in honey production and the country has huge potential to export these products and diversify its economy. However, the honey market is not an easy one to enter. In the case of Zambia, inadequate food safety standards and limited regulatory controls have hampered the ability of the country to exploit trade opportunities in regional and international markets. SNV implemented Trade and Institutional Capacity Building in the Apiculture Sector (TICBAS) project, which is one of the four projects recently approved for funding worth more than US$1.4 million by the Africa Trade Fund (AfTra), targets this problem.

The TICBAS project aims to improve the capacity of traders, processors and producers of honey and bee products to comply with sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) measures. This will allow them to upgrade within the honey global value chain by exporting table honey instead of bulk honey, thereby capturing more of the market value.

This project stems from SNV’s experience and expertise in Zambia’s apiculture sector that was gained through the EIF funded TIPEC-ZAS project that aimed to increase bee products production, access to markets, and income and employment of small scale producers. Ultimately, both projects aim to strengthen all actors along the local and global honey and bee product value chains to grow the sector in the country, and to especially grow the opportunities of the small-scale producers.

The project commences in March, 2015.

For more information, check out this article: Africa Trade Fund approves $1.4 million in funding for four projects.