Sticky, Sweet and Sustainable:
How honey farming is improving the lives of rural Zambians

29 October, 2009 @ 12:12

Growing up in Zambia, Dan Ball saw all too often that resourceful, hardworking people had little opportunity to create a bright future. In the region of Mwinilunga, Zambia, thousands of rural families struggled to survive on subsistence farming alone, with no opportunity to sell their crops to earn an ongoing income. Recognizing this, Dan established Forest Fruits in 1997 – a business that buys, processes, and sells honey produced by farmers in Mwinilunga. In just over ten years, Forest Fruits has provided over 5,400 farmers the opportunity to earn ongoing stable income by selling the honey they produce.

Dan’s company now does over $ 1 million worth of business exporting honey in bulk to wholesalers and is even attracting social enterprise investors from around the world. Yet, like any other business, Forest Fruits has encountered growing pains.

Despite a high demand for their product, Forest Fruits was unable to increase sales and positively impact honey farmers. Here, EWB saw a unique opportunity to have a lasting impact on rural communities in Zambia by improving Forest Fruits’ operations. Overseas volunteer Mark Hemsworth has been working with Forest Fruits since early 2008, to help expand their processing and logistical capacity in response to the company’s rapid growth.

Mark stands with Forest Fruits pure honey at a retail outlet in Lusaka, Zambia.

Mark has vastly improved Forest Fruits’ effectiveness by helping to implement standard operating procedures, inventory control, procurement, and audit mechanisms. Each one of these changes has resulted in more informed decisions, and improved revenue. Additionally, Forest Fruits has now been able to better identify growth opportunities.

And grow, is exactly what the company has done. As a business-minded engineer, Mark has been helping Forest Fruits expand into the local retail honey market. This has meant completing the development of a retail packaging plant, branding and marketing to add value to the raw honey.

The impact has been incredible. Forest Fruits honey is now worth 50% more per kilogram in retail package, compared to raw form. With increased revenues, Forest Fruits has been able to pay farmers a higher price for their honey. Farmers in Mwinilunga are now motivated to improve their farming skills to increase the yield and quality of their honey. If they don’t, there is surely another farmer waiting for the opportunity to do so.

“I have seen the sustainable power of business to create real changes in the way farmers work and how they think about farming,” Mark says.

Much like their honey bee farmers, Forest Fruits is looking to the future. With expansion into the local market, the demand for their honey is now outweighing their supply. With Mark’s contribution, Forest Fruits is increasing the number of farmers from whom they source honey. Within two years, they hope to have 400 new farmers using modern hives and earning a sustainable income.

“Forest Fruits has created a successful business, while giving these farmers a lasting opportunity to drive their own futures forward,” Mark says. “But what is really exciting, is that they are paving the way for more companies in Zambia to do the same.”