Economic analysis of honey production and marketing in Hai district, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

The objective of the study was to analyze economic factors that affect honey production and marketing in Hai District. Specific objectives were (i) to analyse profitability of honey production (ii) to assess efficiency of honey marketing and role-played by various market participants (iii) to evaluate contribution of beekeeping to household income and (iv) suggest intervention strategies to improve the existing situation. A cross sectional research design was adopted, the sample size of 80 respondents obtained through both simple random and purposive sampling techniques. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods for data analysis in order to address the objectives of the study. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 11.5 was used to analyze the data. The results of the study show that beekeeping is a household viable enterprise. Beekeepers owned on average 1-30 beehives and earned Tshs 37 850 as gross profit per one beehive. It was also observed that 84% of the sampled beekeepers didn’t process honey into other valuable forms including wax. Processed honey and waxes earn more income compared to raw honey by about 30% higher. Constraints to honey and beeswax production as identified by respondents include: insects, legal access to forest reserve and drought as identified by 24.4%, 22.3% and 16.4% of the sample beekeepers respectively. Marketing constraints identified were low prices of honey (83.4% of the sampled beekeepers) and no strong market for honey products (16.6% of the sampled beekeepers). From this study it is concluded that beekeeping enterprise contributes to household cash income of Tshs 10 000-221 000 per year with a mean of Tshs 215 659 and it was seen that the contribution of beekeeping sector to the household income is significant. Meaningful interventions to enhance the competitiveness of the value chain should start with organizing the players, letting them build a platform to interact addressing key chain issues. Any organization already involved in the establishing a supply chain of honey should be fully supported by all stakeholders. On the overall, despite its potential, it has failed to attract investment and therefore has remained at subsistence level. Government at all level and CSOs need to join efforts to commercialize the sector. Whatever efforts we do, market is the determining factor, e.g. why improve quality if the market is not ready to pay an extra cost for quality products? Since entry into export market requires strict quality products, let us develop the local market, which shall form the springboard for exports.