Ethiopia: Stuck on honey

Bees are responsible for one of Ethiopia's success stories

By Ellene Mocria

Ethiopians like their honey and over the years have exploited bees to the full.

The country's famous national drink is a sweet wine known as Tej - made from honey.

Apytherapy is used in hospitals to treat a variety of ailments.

Fires have been raging in the south for weeks

And Ethiopia is a major producer of beeswax, only surpassed by Mexico and China.

It is also the world's 10th biggest honey producer.

But fires raging in southern Ethiopia could prove a severe setback for an industry which was fast becoming a major foreign currency earner.

The livelihoods of many honey farmers have been ruined by the fires in Bale and Borena Zones.

More than 13,000 beehives have been burnt and local ecology has been devastated, with rare wildlife and much vegetation threatened.

Pesticide threat

Ethiopia's honey industry is also facing another threat.

Mr Desselign Begena who runs a protection unit at Ethiopia's only Bee research centre in Holeta, 50 km west of the capital, Addis Ababa, says the indiscriminate use of pesticides is increasingly worrying.

The government has promoted them and uses them intensively in state farms, he says.

The research centre trains beekeepers

And he says there are many obsolete pesticides in the country.

"Pesticides are imported from different directions, legally or illegally, whether it is certified or not.

"Our farmers cannot understand the labels because these are written in foreign languages," he said.

"And really, pesticides are imported into our countries having a short life span. This means they are expired at the border areas before arriving!"

He says this threatens not only bees but also the country's own ecology.

Hope for bees

In spite of these problems, the future for the honey industry remains bright.