How To Make Money From Honey
#Business
Excerpts;
What was the attraction to honey?
I am interested in natural food and I probe into values and information that are useful to humanity about natural foods. I went into honey production because of my interest in promoting foods that is good for humanity.
Didn’t you have profit on your mind?
It was not profit that pushed me initially. I was working with a food company as the marketing coordinator in Kaduna when a friend introduced the product to me. But I was not very interested. He insisted and forced me to buy six bottles and paid for them but he later asked me to pay back. It was like a souvenir when I brought it to Lagos and it took me three months to sell six bottles of honey. But later on I started gathering information on honey from books and internet. I contacted people who were in the business and found it interesting. But I have never and will never allow the quest for profit to overshadow the value that I would have to give out to people.
How is the honey business looking at the risk-profit ratio?
I am doing honey full time now. I have a Journalism and International Relations background but I never made money in those areas. Honey has been my main source of income. When you go into it and you know what you are doing, and you do it as a business, it is profitable. But it is also risky. The risk angle is that the honey can go fermenting and you may lose your market. Fermentation can set in the honey as a result of untimely harvesting of the honey. When you are harvesting from a large bee farm, there is a tendency to harvest from unripe combs and this can make the honey to go fermenting. Honey business is good but it is not as easy as people think. It needs continuous investment to prosper.
What causes fermentation in honey and at what point does it start? Is it in the comb or at the point of processing?
Sometimes it can happen in the comb, which is if you harvest unripe honey (honey that still has much water retention). Water level is honey must be between 18 and 25 percent, if it goes beyond that, you have a problem. This happens when the bee could not fan off the water from the honey to dry it to that point or maybe the rainy season starts because when it is raining and cold, bees will lose activity and the energy to do it and it will stop. So if the honey remains in the comb with high water content, it can ferment. It may not happen in the comb. You might have taken it from the comb and perhaps while storing it water gets into it and it’s more than necessary, it can ferment. Another way honey can ferment is when those who think they are wise adulterate honey with water. Once you add water to honey and put it in a container for sale, it will go bad. Fermentation sets in as a result excess natural water or excess
addition of water.
So what is the season for harvesting honey so that there won’t be excess water in it?
You harvest honey when it is very sunny. At that time, the bees would have worked very hard and production would have been very good. The harvesting period is the beginning of the rainy season that is between March and April.
How can I differentiate adulterated honey from the original one?
It’s difficult to know if you are not in honey business or you have not been consuming honey for a long time. We identify honey by water content, odors and taste. People consume honey based on confidence. You have to depend on me for your quality honey than depend on your knowledge of the product. For instance, I know the odour of honey and you may not know. No matter where the honey is coming from, it must have this one particular odour. It must also have the same taste. So what we do for our customers is to ensure they have undiluted honey.
It is very difficult to identify fake honey. But then you can take your honey to the lap and check to see the content. Again, if you add anything to honey, the honey will push it up because it sifts itself. It’s just a matter of time.
How long can honey be stored?
It can remain for up to 1000 years. If you get it from the comb and store it in an earthen, it will remain there for as long as possible. You can also use glass container but the worst container for honey is nylon.
What makes brooks honey different from others?
We have a lot of knowledge about honey and we give out information freely and we do this on authority. We are very accessible to our customers. We maintain a very high level of hygiene at our production plant. Again we are also trying to be very considerate in terms of pricing and the reason is that we want a lot of people to consume honey and if that is what you want, you have to cut down your ambition to make profit. And very importantly, we have testimonies of
originality from our customers. They use our honey in general hospitals to treat wounds, they use it to prepare herbal medicine, there was a man who had diabetic crisis and was warned never to take honey but after taking my honey the guy was tested in the hospital and it was found out that his sugar level was normal. That means we have a safe product on our hands. Besides, our products are certified by public analysts.
How can a start-up go into honey business?
Honey is capital intensive. To start the business, you may need up to N500,000. There are levels of items you need to be in the market except you are not really serious about the business. You have to package, label and get a decent office because honey is very sensitive. There is what is called e-coli, if it sets in your honey, it is a big problem. You have to register your product and before you complete all the processes, even the N500,000 is peanut. Even with that amount, you still have to wait because the profit will come in gradually. But if you are willing to wait long enough, then you will reap bountifully. There is money in honey, I cannot deceive you but you have to be persistent and have knowledge of what you want to do. I tend to think that people who run small business empowerment seminars are deceiving people when they say you can start honey business with N50,000.
What are the risks going into honey business?
You have to know how to identify honey. There are over 100 species of honey and you have to have a deep knowledge of them. Otherwise if you invest N100 million in procuring the wrong thing, your money is gone. You have to know what you buy as raw materials. Also, you have to be patient. It is not something that you make your profit the next morning. Also you could encounter losses. For instance there was a stock sent to us from Adamawa by the time it got to the park, some of the gallons were leaking and rain entered it and it went bad. The quantity was large and I lost up to N270,000 at that time. Mishandling of the stock can cost you the business. And again if there is carelessness in processing perhaps your staff are angry and decide to adulterate your honey, you are gone.
What could go wrong from the farm?
If your bee farm is near industrial area, industrial toxins can affect the bees and the end result. That is why it is advisable to establish your bee farm in a very remote area. Another one is invasion by pests into combs or hives. Ants for instance look for honey very much because it is nutritional for them. The big ones can invade; eat the honey and the bees. That is why in the bee farm, you have to take care of the environment. Again if you want quick returns and start feeding the bees, you may end up losing everything. Also you know we have
power problems and you cannot produce honey where you are sweating. Sweat must not drop into the honey the environment must be cool and you need power for that.
Your product is acceptable, are you concerned that it could be faked?
Yes I am seriously worried. Every successful product in Nigeria is faked maybe except coca-cola because of their highly kept secret formula. Fakers will wait for you to break even and once you do that, they move in. It is a big task but what we are working on some processes that will make it very difficult and expensive for fakers to try.
Please you can comment on this post . waiting for your feedback!
#Honey What was the attraction to honey?
I am interested in natural food and I probe into values and information that are useful to humanity about natural foods. I went into honey production because of my interest in promoting foods that is good for humanity.
Didn’t you have profit on your mind?
It was not profit that pushed me initially. I was working with a food company as the marketing coordinator in Kaduna when a friend introduced the product to me. But I was not very interested. He insisted and forced me to buy six bottles and paid for them but he later asked me to pay back. It was like a souvenir when I brought it to Lagos and it took me three months to sell six bottles of honey. But later on I started gathering information on honey from books and internet. I contacted people who were in the business and found it interesting. But I have never and will never allow the quest for profit to overshadow the value that I would have to give out to people.
How is the honey business looking at the risk-profit ratio?
I am doing honey full time now. I have a Journalism and International Relations background but I never made money in those areas. Honey has been my main source of income. When you go into it and you know what you are doing, and you do it as a business, it is profitable. But it is also risky. The risk angle is that the honey can go fermenting and you may lose your market. Fermentation can set in the honey as a result of untimely harvesting of the honey. When you are harvesting from a large bee farm, there is a tendency to harvest from unripe combs and this can make the honey to go fermenting. Honey business is good but it is not as easy as people think. It needs continuous investment to prosper.
What causes fermentation in honey and at what point does it start? Is it in the comb or at the point of processing?
Sometimes it can happen in the comb, which is if you harvest unripe honey (honey that still has much water retention). Water level is honey must be between 18 and 25 percent, if it goes beyond that, you have a problem. This happens when the bee could not fan off the water from the honey to dry it to that point or maybe the rainy season starts because when it is raining and cold, bees will lose activity and the energy to do it and it will stop. So if the honey remains in the comb with high water content, it can ferment. It may not happen in the comb. You might have taken it from the comb and perhaps while storing it water gets into it and it’s more than necessary, it can ferment. Another way honey can ferment is when those who think they are wise adulterate honey with water. Once you add water to honey and put it in a container for sale, it will go bad. Fermentation sets in as a result excess natural water or excess
addition of water.
So what is the season for harvesting honey so that there won’t be excess water in it?
You harvest honey when it is very sunny. At that time, the bees would have worked very hard and production would have been very good. The harvesting period is the beginning of the rainy season that is between March and April.
How can I differentiate adulterated honey from the original one?
It’s difficult to know if you are not in honey business or you have not been consuming honey for a long time. We identify honey by water content, odors and taste. People consume honey based on confidence. You have to depend on me for your quality honey than depend on your knowledge of the product. For instance, I know the odour of honey and you may not know. No matter where the honey is coming from, it must have this one particular odour. It must also have the same taste. So what we do for our customers is to ensure they have undiluted honey.
It is very difficult to identify fake honey. But then you can take your honey to the lap and check to see the content. Again, if you add anything to honey, the honey will push it up because it sifts itself. It’s just a matter of time.
How long can honey be stored?
It can remain for up to 1000 years. If you get it from the comb and store it in an earthen, it will remain there for as long as possible. You can also use glass container but the worst container for honey is nylon.
What makes brooks honey different from others?
We have a lot of knowledge about honey and we give out information freely and we do this on authority. We are very accessible to our customers. We maintain a very high level of hygiene at our production plant. Again we are also trying to be very considerate in terms of pricing and the reason is that we want a lot of people to consume honey and if that is what you want, you have to cut down your ambition to make profit. And very importantly, we have testimonies of
originality from our customers. They use our honey in general hospitals to treat wounds, they use it to prepare herbal medicine, there was a man who had diabetic crisis and was warned never to take honey but after taking my honey the guy was tested in the hospital and it was found out that his sugar level was normal. That means we have a safe product on our hands. Besides, our products are certified by public analysts.
How can a start-up go into honey business?
Honey is capital intensive. To start the business, you may need up to N500,000. There are levels of items you need to be in the market except you are not really serious about the business. You have to package, label and get a decent office because honey is very sensitive. There is what is called e-coli, if it sets in your honey, it is a big problem. You have to register your product and before you complete all the processes, even the N500,000 is peanut. Even with that amount, you still have to wait because the profit will come in gradually. But if you are willing to wait long enough, then you will reap bountifully. There is money in honey, I cannot deceive you but you have to be persistent and have knowledge of what you want to do. I tend to think that people who run small business empowerment seminars are deceiving people when they say you can start honey business with N50,000.
What are the risks going into honey business?
You have to know how to identify honey. There are over 100 species of honey and you have to have a deep knowledge of them. Otherwise if you invest N100 million in procuring the wrong thing, your money is gone. You have to know what you buy as raw materials. Also, you have to be patient. It is not something that you make your profit the next morning. Also you could encounter losses. For instance there was a stock sent to us from Adamawa by the time it got to the park, some of the gallons were leaking and rain entered it and it went bad. The quantity was large and I lost up to N270,000 at that time. Mishandling of the stock can cost you the business. And again if there is carelessness in processing perhaps your staff are angry and decide to adulterate your honey, you are gone.
What could go wrong from the farm?
If your bee farm is near industrial area, industrial toxins can affect the bees and the end result. That is why it is advisable to establish your bee farm in a very remote area. Another one is invasion by pests into combs or hives. Ants for instance look for honey very much because it is nutritional for them. The big ones can invade; eat the honey and the bees. That is why in the bee farm, you have to take care of the environment. Again if you want quick returns and start feeding the bees, you may end up losing everything. Also you know we have
power problems and you cannot produce honey where you are sweating. Sweat must not drop into the honey the environment must be cool and you need power for that.
Your product is acceptable, are you concerned that it could be faked?
Yes I am seriously worried. Every successful product in Nigeria is faked maybe except coca-cola because of their highly kept secret formula. Fakers will wait for you to break even and once you do that, they move in. It is a big task but what we are working on some processes that will make it very difficult and expensive for fakers to try.
Please you can comment on this post . waiting for your feedback!
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