Melo Africa targets to export 10 containers of pure Bee honey to the United States this year from 3 in 2015,Amara Mewa, General Manager of Melo Africa said in an interview.
The company is shipping 4 twenty feet containers of pure Bee honey to the United States of America in the next couple of days. The containers should have left the port of Freetown 3 weeks ago if the scanner at the port was working properly. This would be the company’s second shipment of honey to the US. The first shipment of 3 containers was in late 2015.
“We provide market for the Bee farmers and work directly with them,” he said. “We don’t work with middlemen, we deal with the farmers. We have a lot of middlemen in our business scheme which lead to a situation where in the actual farmers receive pittance instead of getting the full benefit of their hard work.”
Melo Africa buys from the farmers and sells to Sweet Harvest Foods in Minnesota. Sweet Harvest Foods has been working with its partner Melo Africa for some years to ensure the supply of pure Bee honey from Sierra Leone to the US is guaranteed. Melo started with farmers in Koinadugu, Kenema and Kailahun and has extended to Port Loko, Bombali and Kambia.
“There is more money in Bee keeping with minimum labour compared to palm oil production,” Mr. Mewa said. The company trains the Bee farmers on how to keep the hives and harvest world class honey. They always aim to produce honey that meets international standard.
Mr. Mewa is approaching donors to support bee farmers in the country. Most of them are using local materials. Getting Langstroth Hives shipped from China will lead to the production of high quality honey. To ensure quality honey is supplied, the company has a refract metre to test the quality of the honey.
Melo is a latin word for “Honey.” There is need to support these communities. Musaya town in the Koinadugu District is well known for Bee Keeping. Melo is using the Kenya Top Bar Hive.
Monday July 18, 2016
ADVERTISEMENT