Hi everyone (I moved this post from another section):
I'm new to this forum and am not a bee keeper but was hoping for some advice on marketing honey from Africa in the US.
A group I work with, Village Hope (www.villagehopeinc.org) works on poverty reduction in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Our strategy is to start commercially viable businesses that use state-of-the-art methods. The businesses provide excellent jobs, and profits are used to carry out needed community projects. All of us from the US serve as volunteers so our start up and operating costs are often very low putting us in a strong competitive position. We call this approach the "Charity Business Model". Producing honey and marketing it in the US is one of the businesses I'd like to investigate.
I've looked into production, transportation, meeting FDA requirements, etc. We would enlist the services of an expert (volunteer) bee keeper to launch the effort. I'm a researcher (PhD in ecology) and would help where I could. We have a great group in SL (we've been there for 9 years). Together, I think we could bring high-quality honey to the US at a very competitive price. My concern though is "How would we sell it?". For example, could we establish a network, maybe even including some of the members on this forum, who would sell it (making money in the process of course)? Is there a different, better way? Every time I investigate bringing anything to the US I run up against the problem that I'm not confident I can find a buyer and, without that, I'm hesitant to invest our very scarce resources in the venture.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.
jonbart, I'm not trying to come across as being hateful. That being said, a lot of us beekeepers preach to steer clear of overseas honey. China is notorious for producing corn syrup honey, relabeling it so it'll appear to be from another country. There's all kind of evil stuff in their so called honey other than corn syrup. I would never buy honey from another country for that reason.
However, a lot of the big box stores doesn't have a problem with selling it. Another venue you could look at is non profits. If yall are sponsored by some church affiliation then maybe you could funnel it back through them as a product of missionary work - if indeed it is. I know of folks who went down into Haiti and got the beekeeping off and running.
Does Sierra Leone have any kind of organic certification? Would your honey be eligible for that certification or could it be if you filled out the right paperwork etc? They sell Brazillian honey here as "certified organic" even though we have no organic definition here because of trade agreements. So all of the "organic" honey for sale here is form Brazil. You could demand a higher price if it was "organic".
I would try to find out. If Sierra Leone even had any kind of trade agreements for agricultural products for the USA.
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)