The world market for natural honey reached US$2.1 billion in 2017(UN comtrade) and the top five importing countries are USA, German, Japan, France and UK respectively. Uganda’s exports of natural honey stood at a mere US$4 thousand in the same year exported mainly to Oman and Rwanda.
The country also imported natural honey worth US$ 101 thousand from UAE, Egypt, Kenya and Tanzania. It’s therefore clear that domestic demand and export demand for natural honey is too huge to match the current production in Wakiso district and Uganda at large. Investing in bee keeping will go a long way in addressing the above demand gap and generate foreign exchange earnings.
Wakiso district has good agronomic factors favoring bee keeping especially for the local people in rural areas. Consumption of natural honey and other bee products is set to continue growing as a result of growing number of supermarkets in neighboring Kampala and also health cautious lifestyle of mainly middle class Ugandans.
Other investment opportunities presented in this sector include: supply of honey processing equipment and machinery, packaging materials etc.