Opportunities and Challenges of Honey and Bees Wax Production in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Beekeeping is a widely practiced economic activity that has been practiced for centuries. Ethiopia is a leading honey producer in Africa with a total of around 24% of total production in the continent or nearly 44,000 tons of honey and one of the ten largest honey producing countries by contributing roughly 2.4% of total honey production in the world. The major honey and beeswax producing regions in Ethiopia are Oromia (41%), SNNPR (22%), Amhara (21%) and Tigray (5%) i.e. around 90% of honey and beeswax is produced by four major regions of the country. The possibility of integration with other economic activities, its behavior of friendliness, and its ease to do could be seen as the opportunities in this economic activity.  Farmers’ reluctance to new invention, poor marketing linkage whether to local customers or foreign demand, poor infrastructure in the country, and unavailability of storage facilities and others are major challenges encountered.

Keywords: honeybee, honey, beeswax, hives

DOI: 10.7176/ALST/72-04

Publication date:March 31^st 2019