Profile
Honey Care Africa was established in 2000 as an innovative private sector social enterprise to promote sustainable community-based beekeeping in Eastern Africa. It was set up with an explicit triple bottom-line agenda, with an emphasis on generating economic, social and environmental value simultaneously through its activities, the head office is in Nairobi and they have 7 collection centres across Kenya

To date, Honey care has doubled the income of several thousands small scale farmers through its “Money for Honey” program which trains them in commercial beekeeping.

Honey Care mission is to assist rural small-scale farmers to earn a second income, thus lifting them above the poverty line. They also strive to enable farmers earn a sustainable income over the long run thus positively impacting their quality of life.

Goals and objectives of the organization according to their policy is to provide a guaranteed market for any honey that the rural small scale farmers produce, regardless of the quantity. In addition to this, provide training to farmers to improve the yields and quality of the honey, in order for them to fetch higher prices.
To achieve its objective the company has opted to work with the rural community groups in an out grower model whereby it has introduced modern bee keeping methods using the Longstroth hives. In this approach the company closely monitors the production processes to ensure quality honey is produced by the contracted out growers.
Honey Care Company is HACCP certified. They have annual HACCP audits which ensure they follow the food safety guidelines. It was developed by a team of Honey care staff who after training, spearheaded the implementation of the system through development of food safety manual that works as a guideline on the operating procedures and good manufacturing practice. There is an implementation plan that the team uses to ensure maintenance of the system.

They buy honey from farmers or middlemen who come directly to the office. Before purchasing though, relevant quality tests have to be carried out to ensure the honey is of the highest quality.

Honey Care supports close to 3500 beekeepers that represent an average of 10 – 20 farmers in a group. The support is through training, extension services, access to credit facility, guaranteed market.

Honey Care Africa provides a guaranteed market and income to all the farmers that work with. Previously, farmers would sell their honey to middlemen and to brokers, and many times not get paid. Further, the prices were so low, that it did not justify farmer costs. Quality of the honey was poor thus farmers could not fetch a fair price for their product. Honey Care Africa has changed all this. They pay cash on the spot for all the honey received and accept all honey.

Plans for the future for Honey care is that they plan to start packaging their honey in smaller quantities in sachets, which they hope to retail through the thousands of kiosks and small shops found all over both the rural and urban areas. They have also embarked on an ambitious primary and secondary interactive school outreach education programme to introduce bee keeping and applied entomology to students. Owise Honey care is constantly working on the development of new and innovative bee products.