FATAI Adeshina is a quantity surveyor by training. He is the managing partner of A & Shine International Ltd, a honey packaging company based in Abuja. Adeshina who is also the President of the Nigeria Apiculture Platform (NAP) speaks with The ICIR’s OLUGBENGA ADANIKIN and AMOS ABBA about the challenges of the Nigerian apiculture industry, the safety standards being implemented for honey in the country among other sundry issues.



Can you give an overview of the Nigerian apiculture sector?

The Nigerian apicultural sector is one sector that the Federal Government is very keen to see how it can bring it up and revive it. In the past, the sector constituted mainly 75 per cent traditional beekeepers which means they were using the unorthodox methods of keeping bees and when you keep bees in that way you cannot avoid external contact with the honey and some bit of adulteration may go into it.

As a group, our motive was quite clear, right from the word go, we wanted to see how we can produce pure and unadulterated honey. When we started it you will all agree with me that adulterated honey is not something that we can completely eradicate and introduce a change. The change will be difficult but at least we were able to get somewhere.

For instance, we, I mean A & Shine Honey introduced every measure we could introduce from having our own laboratory for on the spot check whenever we have a supply of honey. And we didn’t just begin to request that traditional beekeepers supply honey to us, we tried to train and give them hives to see how they can begin to produce in a modern way. We gave them assurance of off-taking honey at a good price by buying it off from them.

Despite that, we can’t still trust producers 100 per cent and in order to ensure that we don’t run into packaging adulterated honey, we decided to have our lab where they bring their honey for testing and whichever one we reject they take it back.

Is your laboratory certified by any professional body in Nigeria?

In fact, we got the recommendation of what to use in the laboratory. It is just for our own internal use. Whenever we require testing to be done we send it to an independent laboratory recommended by the NAFDAC. Whenever we are sending our own lab test to the NAFDAC we use our laboratory test to compare with theirs. So NAFDAC certified our lab while the external lab was also certified by NAFDAC.

Tell us more about your own laboratory here?

Our own lab is not a full-fledged lab, it is a lab for on the spot check. We conduct on the spot check using a spectrometer to test water content of the honey. Phining test is something we can do on the spot before we can off-take honey from the supplier. So that is not a comprehensive test and that is why we have to use an external laboratory. Once we know the specification of what you want to achieve. For instance, if you have a spectrometer and you know water content of honey should not exceed 20 per cent, you use it to check the water content and another one to check for adulteration. Those are the two tests we carry out here to enable us off-take. Once we accept the honey we send it to our external lab for complete analysis.

Under your leadership is there any regulatory standard that you were able to develop to ensure that other stakeholders within Nigeria’s apiculture adhere to?

Let me say that the Nigeria Apiculture Platform (NAP) did not just appear from nowhere. There was a continental platform, African Apiculture Platform (AAP). This continental platform was launched by the African Union in Uganda in 2014. The launch brought together all the 52 member states in Africa to discuss policies of honey, the standards of honey and some other parameters.

It would interest you that when that platform was launched in 2014 in Uganda, A & Shine was chosen as the first chair of that platform. It was on that premise that we came to the Nigerian government to persuade government to launch a national chapter to oversee all the other associations and ensure that they will liaise with the continental platform to get information from them to develop our own national chapter.

We are the first country to launch the national chapter while 19 other countries also came together to launch theirs but Nigeria was the first. It was launched in 2018, at Chelsea Hotel by the former Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh.

The Government of Nigeria considered it wise to set up an inter-ministerial committee by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture on honey production. The idea was to increase the production of honey in the country, ensure that the stakeholders are sensitized on pollination policy and then to care for the bees and for food safety so that what they use on the farm does not affect the bees.

Those are the four principal objectives. The Nigeria Export Promotion Council waded in to see how they can get Nigerian honey certified by the EU. They engaged a consultant from Uganda. It was a very expensive exercise and the consultant came to Nigeria twice to train stakeholders on what is called residual monitoring process for honey. That is the condition for export of honey to EU countries.

That is the stage that we are now with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council. The AAP also put several things in place such as developing policy for the continent and that policy is what we are also using to develop a policy for Nigeria.

Last month, the Federal Ministry of Trade invited stakeholders on the development of national policy for apiculture in Nigeria. It will interest you to know that the consumption of honey in Nigeria is put at 38,000 metric tonnes annually and our production is a little above 2,000 metric tonnes. You can see that it is a sector that has hidden advantage.

We have several retirees who have registered today on the NAP to be trained in beekeeping so as to have something to do.

Does that imply that currently the regulatory framework is still being developed?

It has been developed in Kenya. All we need to do is to buy into what has been done as a country. So, I would say locally, it has been adopted.

In 2016, that was what actually prompted the decision to create awareness among the populace. One of the ways that was done was that the platform embarked on bidding to host the first-ever international fair of apiculture in 2018. At that time, stakeholders from all African member states gathered here at the International Conference Centre, Abuja to showcase the stage honey has reached to date.

We also had some people from outside Africa who came in. To bid for that hosting right, there was a $5,000 bidding fee which the Federal Ministry of Agriculture gladly paid. To host that event at the ICC which was a lot of money, the ministry paid it off. That is to show you how eager they want this sector to develop.

This was how Ethiopia started and they are the largest producer of honey in Africa and the largest producer of beeswax in the world. We know Nigeria can do better because we have the land and the vegetation if we can put our acts together. And A & Shine honey is trying to set the pace.

There are a lot of potentials in terms of apiculture and beekeeping but how many members do you have on the platform?

Before Nigeria Apiculture Platform came into existence, we had the Federation of Bee Keepers Association of Nigeria (FEBKAN). We had other association to overseeing the apicultural sector but we decided to leverage on NAP because of the AU connection that is why NAP is appearing to look like it is taking over from FEBKAN.

FEBKAN was put together by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Industry while NAP was registered by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture which provided an office for us at the Central Business Area close to NAIC office.

Which is the recognized body?

As far as the stakeholders are concerned, NAP is a more recognized body for apiculture in Nigeria but we don’t want to dabble into the leadership tussle or who is overall. We have members of FEBKAN who are also members of NAP, it depends on the one you want to belong to.

This means that FEBKAN is majorly recognized by the Federal Ministry of Trade while NAP is recognized by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, AU and stakeholders.

Considering this difference in terms of leadership and membership, how do you ensure that apiculture in Nigeria is carried out in accordance with international best practices?

I don’t see any grey areas of disagreement in whatsoever we have…. In terms of monitoring, the platform is put in place to provide an environment of training for stakeholders and ensuring that whoever belongs to the various associations or platforms conform to the best standard practice. The AU has put in place a standard for the African continent. That standard has been passed over to the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON). The SON has developed a standard which we call Nigerian standard from that.The membership of that committee includes members of FEBCAN, NAP and other stakeholders in the honey business.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/nigeria-on-the-road-to-beat-ethiopia-as-the-largest-producer-of-pure-honey-adeshina-honey-producer/

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