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Jean de Dieu Kwizera, the CEO and founder of Beegulf Ltd, started his business with five beehives in 2019. He is now making a fortune from beekeeping, a business he runs in Gasabo and Gisagara Districts.
Doing Business caught up with him when he was exhibiting a project that conserves nature and bees during the first-ever African Protected Areas Congress (APAC) that took place in Kigali, from July 18 to 23.
His business idea started when he was at the University of Rwanda-College of Science and Technology. Upon graduation, he found a mentor who equipped him with skills in the beekeeping business.
Later, he also started training other people. "From the fees which trainees paid me, I bought five modern beehives which I started with. I bought each at Rwf40,000. That is why I requested the city of Kigali to give me an opportunity to leverage one of the state forests for beekeeping in Gasabo," he said.
"I was always pondering what I could do to create a job after graduating. It is not necessary to start with huge capital to do such business. I started with five modern beehives and I currently have 50 modern beehives. I also have over 100 traditional beehives because they are not expensive."
Kwizera harvests between 1.5 tons (1,500 kilos) and 2.0 tons of honey every year, with one kilo sold at Rwf8, 000. He earns between Rwf12 million and Rwf16 million, annually.
"My business plays a role in increasing the bee population since bees are pollinators in biodiversity and then make money from honey production and value addition. There are business opportunities in nature-based projects for the youth," he said.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a third of the world's food production depends on bees through pollination. The bee populations have been declining globally due to habitat loss, intensive farming practices, changes in weather patterns and excessive use of agrochemicals such as pesticides.
Kwizera trains farmers on organic farming so that agrochemicals do not kill bees. "I also train youth and women on starting beekeeping business. I have so far trained over 300 of them."
His beekeeping business focuses on three components including apitourism which involves educational tours for beekeepers and people who want to invest in beekeeping. Then there is value addition to honey as well as making basic materials used by beekeepers. "I have started to make different products from bees such as candles, soaps, cosmetics and others using bee wax."
Manufacturing modern beehives, bee suits
The entrepreneur also fabricates modern beehives and supplies them to beekeepers across the country. So far, he has supplied about 500 modern beehives, selling each at between Rwf40,000 and Rwf55,000 and making total sales between Rwf20 million and Rwf27 million.
"I train people who buy my modern beehives on how to make beekeeping a viable business," he said. His firm also makes bee suits; the protective clothes that beekeepers wear, and has also produced a sample of small honey filtering machines.
"Normally one filtering machine goes for between Rwf150, 000 and Rwf400, 000 which is not affordable to smallholder farmers. "That is why with my innovation, I am producing affordable small honey filtering machines made of available materials such as wood and bee waxes. It is a creative solution because people were using mosquito nets that are not safe," he said.
Currently he is working with 150 beekeepers across the country. "They supply the harvest to me, and I process it for the market. This season they have already supplied two tons."
Kwizera told Doing Business that he secured a €3,000 grant in June during competition. "I am using the money to expand my business in Gisagara District. I installed 20 traditional beehives there and plan to install at least 100 modern beehives. There is both a local and export market opportunity."
Figures from the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) indicate that the current production of honey is estimated to be only 5,600 metric tons per year against a demand of 17,000 tons.
In June 2014, Rwanda got accreditation to export the product to the EU after its honey was found to meet required quality standards. However, low output continued to deny the country of potential foreign exchange revenue.
Figures show that in the fiscal year 2019/20, Rwanda exported 3,319 kilos of honey to the EU, generating $14,035 (about Rwf13 million).
Source: allafrica.com

Nairobi — Tea prices at the weekly Mombasa auction rose slightly this week amid an increase in the volumes traded. At this week's auction, a kilo averaged USD2.22(Sh263.85) up from USD2.21(Sh262.66) last week.
The total volume traded this week was 150,380 kilos more than last week, the East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA)notes.
"There was a general demand at irregular levels for the 180,695 packages (11,877,084.00 kilos) available for sale with 132,937 packages (8,761,661 Kilos) being sold.
In the past three weeks, the tea prices have been declining which saw huge volumes of teas withdrawn from the auctions to be introduced in future sales.
The increase in price saw the percentage of unsold packages drop to 26.43 per cent from 30 per cent in last week's auction.
"Egyptian Packers, Yemen, other Middle Eastern countries and Sudan maintained useful support with improved interest from Kazakhstan, other CIS states and UK while Pakistan Packers, Bazaar and Afghanistan showed reduced activity," said EATTA managing director Edward Mudibo.
Russia was less active with Iran absent while local packers-maintained interest with Somalia active at the lower end of the market, he noted.
Source: allafrica.com

Long before the Ukraine conflict began and sent wheat futures spiraling, scientists in Africa were experimenting with an alternative ingredient for baked goods: orange fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) puree. These efforts to diversify staple products like bread and chapati in Malawi as well as Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda by replacing as much as 60% of wheat flour are now buffering African food systems.

The important lesson here for other African countries is that potato and sweet potato are more than crisis crops that can fill a gap between harvests within three months to tide over the poorest. Rather, these staple crops can be a cornerstone of a nutritious, diverse and resilient food system, which can withstand the shockwaves of market crises by avoiding an over-reliance on single commodities.

The benefits of a more diverse, and therefore, resilient food system that makes the most of crops like sweet potato are manifold but require more investment and commitment to scale up production and unlock the full potential.

To begin with, hardy roots like potato and sweet potato can be stored for longer - thanks to novel technologies - than other perishable goods and ingredients to bolster food security in the short and medium term.

For example, techniques using affordable, locally available preservatives, fine-tuned by food technologists, allow OFSP puree to be stored for three to six months without refrigeration. This provides a reliable and long-term food resource that can be used in Africa's daily bread.

Going forwards, food scientists at the International Potato Center (CIP) are working closely with private sector partners in Kenya to develop the technology for producing shelf-stable purée, using microwave processing and aseptic packaging, that allows it to be stored for more than a year at ambient temperatures, eliminating the need for cold storage. Aseptic puree can be used as an ingredient in food products made by small and medium enterprises and the informal market sector, and with Kenya's wheat import bills estimated at $250 million, sweet potato puree offers a cost-effective, homegrown alternative.

After food security, sweet potato and sweet potato puree also contributes to improved nutrition security. OFSP, which has been rolled out to more than a dozen African countries, is rich in beta-carotene, which is converted to vitamin A in the body.

Just 125 grams of sweet potato provide the daily vitamin A needs of a child aged five or younger, and at least half of its content is retained after baking. In addition, sweet potato puree also reduces added sugar used in most recipes by 90% and fat by 50%, making it a healthier alternative that helps tackle the rise of diet-related illness.

Finally, new ways to breed, grow and process sweet potato also create new opportunities both for farmers and those working in agribusiness. In collaboration with Euro-Ingredients Limited, OFSP puree has been successfully commercialized in Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, and Burkina Faso and piloted in Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, The Gambia, South Africa, and Mozambique, creating new markets for farmers and new jobs for young people.

Organi Limited in Kenya, for example, buys from nearly 200 smallholder farmers of whom at least half are women while Tehilah Bakery and Value Addition Centre in Malawi buys fresh roots from more than 1,000 farmers in eight districts.

Staple crops like potato and sweet potato have long been seen as emergency crops for the poorest because they are quick to mature, can fill in the gap between cereal harvests and provide accessible and affordable calories.

Yet the current global food crisis shows how these crops can play a foundational role in creating more resilient food systems before shocks and stresses hit. With more collaboration with the private sector and support from policymakers, more countries across the continent could be reaping the benefits of potato and sweet potato innovations.

Source: allafrica.com

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Sunday, May 15, launched the first-ever comprehensive tool that measures how easy, or hard, it is to do business between African countries.
The AfCFTA Country Business Index (ACBI) has three key objectives including assessing the perceived impact of the African Continental Free Trade Area on the private sector's ability to trade and invest across African borders once the Area is operational.
The idea that started in 2018 focuses explicitly on the constraints and challenges faced by private businesses, said Stephen Karingi, Director of the Regional Integration and Trade Division of UNECA.
Its launch was done in a side event during the 54th session of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Conference of Ministers in Dakar, Senegal.
"It will be used to identify key challenges that the private sector faces in its cross-border activities," he said.
As noted, the tool focuses on African integration by targeting businesses based in and trading across African countries.
The UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Vera Songwe, said the ACBI "is yet another measurement infrastructure" that will help assess the extent to which broader developments related to integration and trade are implemented; as well as understand the business sector's perceptions of trading under free trade agreements already in force in African countries.
Vera Songwe, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, speaks at the 54th session of the ECA Conference of Ministers in Dakar.
It is not a measure of what a particular country is doing but a measure of how easy it is for someone in one country to set up a business in another country, Songwe said.
The Index aims to look at how easy it is to do business between African countries, to trade among each other and how easy it is for a Cameroonian, for example, to set up business in Kenya and vice versa.
It will help identify bottlenecks and address issues so that the African private sector can conduct business as seamlessly in their country of origin as anywhere else on the continent.
Following the launch of the Index in 2018, experts began piloting and refining it as a tool to measure and compare the views of businesses across Africa on the implementation of the Area. After phase one, in Cameroon and Zambia, the methodology was refined.
Surveys were conducted in seven more countries: Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa.
Karingi said they now target to cover 13 countries by July.
A report with results from the second phase of the roll-out was presented on Sunday. As found out, among others, Karingi noted, cross-border trade is more challenging for female-owned firms, something that policymakers need to pay attention to and help fix.
In the third phase, the new tool will be rolled out in DR Congo, Egypt, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia.
The Index differs from other integration indices, since it is informed entirely by private-sector perceptions, not by secondary data, making it truly representative of African business.
Prudence Sebahizi, the chief technical adviser on AfCFTA, requested the Economic Commission for Africa to enhance the new tool such that it can, in future, also able to measure or assess the status of rules and regulations that impact on trade "and what interventions can be made to improve trade performance."
"My point is: the ACBI has provided outcomes of national consultations based on private sector perceptions. However, no concrete reasons for such perceptions are provided nor actions proposed to improve the perceptions," Sebahizi later told The New Times.
The AfCFTA Secretariat is planning to undertake AfCFTA Trade Policy Reviews that will assess the status of national trade-related policies that affect the implementation of AfCFTA and propose concrete reforms to be undertaken to improve the situation.
The agreement establishing the AfCFTA officially became operational in 2021. The objectives of the Area are to create a single, continent-wide market and to enhance competitiveness at the enterprise level.
Source: Allafrica.com

Kenya plans to allow maize imports from outside the East African Community to mitigate the current spike in flour prices now at a historic high of Sh150 for a two-kilo packet.
Agriculture Cabinet secretary Peter Munya said the imports, which are expected to give consumers a reprieve, will also force farmers hoarding their produce to release it to the market.
He said the decision on when the imports would start and volumes to be shipped in would be made in the next couple of days with the consignment expected to arrive in 45 days from the date that the orders would be made.
“We are going to run out of maize in the next few months and to control the rising cost of flour, we need to import the produce,” said Mr Munya.
This will be the first maize imports from outside of the EAC bloc since 2017.
He said the imports would be restricted to what is needed by those who would be licensed to avoid shipping in excessive stocks by unscrupulous traders.
The price of a 90-kilo bag of maize has shot to Sh4,500 from Sh2,800 in December and Sh3,700 in March on the back of a tightening supply in the market. The ministry said last month that farmers were holding onto 85 percent of the total stock of maize in the county, as they anticipated better prices in the future.
The food balance sheet report for March showed that growers were holding 8.5 million bags of maize stocks out of 10.1 million bags of 90Kgs, which has left millers facing a shortage of maize.
The report indicated that millers and traders have a paltry 1.5 million bags with the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) holding zero grains.
Millers have been complaining that the flow of stocks from local farmers has been dwindling, pointing out that the shortage will be acutely felt in the coming days.
Mr Munya said at the moment there is a shortage of supply to Kenya from the regional markets as most stocks from Uganda are heading to South Sudan where they are fetching a good price
Source: Business Daily

Inosselia Agro and Greenbelt Authority (GBA) greenhouse-based vegetable farm, which is near Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe, last week exported its first consignment of 300 kilograms (kgs) of fresh cherry tomatoes to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The farm--one of the biggest producers of high-quality tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, watermelons, cucumbers, lettuce and cauliflower in Southern Africa --was established to secure exports and substitute the importation of horticultural produce from South Africa, which made Malawi lose a lot of forex.
This first successful commercial export has effectively sealed a sustainable market in DRC for the proprietors of the farm, who will continue exporting the cherry tomatoes to that market every week, with the amount of the produce also increasing every week.
It also puts the farm owners on a sure path to securing exports of the other fresh produce on the farm.
Inosselia Agro the Country Director, Michael Gorelik, speaking in an exclusive interview with Nyasa Times, expressed satisfaction that the farm has successfully achieved import substitution as the farm is now the main supplier of fresh vegetable produce to all major supermarkets and upmarket off-takers in Malawi, including Shoprite, Chipiku, Food Lovers, Sana and many others.
Gorelik said, in line with the initial business concept, the first phase was import substitution, which has now been successfully realized.
"The second phase is export, which we have just now commenced with cherry tomatoes to DRC. This is important, for it will bring more foreign currency into Malawi. Hand in hand with this, we have additional interests from other supermarket chains in other countries. They want export of our high quality and highly consistent fresh produce. So, as production goes up, imports will further reduce, hence more savings in foreign currency for Malawi," said Gorelik.
He added that Inosselia and GBA seek to sustain these exports by, among other things, ensuring high quality and consistency of the produce from the farm.
"If we promise to deliver the produce, we have to deliver, surely. We also have to be best in quality and competitive on pricing in view of the competition from other countries, who are also producing horticultural produce," he said.
Moving forward, Gorelik described Malawi as a "very good investment opportunity" for the Inosselia Group, which has several other ongoing investment interests in the country. According to him, these projects shall attract additional foreign currency, generate employment and expand on capacity building at all levels.
He further said the greenhouse farm near KIA, comprising 16 big greenhouses standing on 30 hectares of land, is now also initiating an extensive training and knowledge transfer (at the on-farm training facilities) to neighboring communities.
Gorelik said this is part of the strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, which are implemented in a joint CSR partnership with Standard Bank.
Inosselia Commercial, a global investment company, partnered with the government of Malawi through GBA in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, which has resulted in this joint venture agreement that is financing and developing one of the biggest greenhouse vegetable farms in Southern Africa, employing about 170 people-- practically all being Malawians residing around the airport and Lumbadzi area.
Source: Nyasatimes

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