The main stakeholders in the Ethiopian honey sector committed to an action plan for the sector in a meeting organised by ProFound and SNV. The resulting 18 action points address issues ranging from problems with out-grower schemes to opportunities for quality improvement. This type of sector action planning is a huge improvement from the independent, fragmented actions of the stakeholders in previous years. It has the potential to transform the honey sector into one of the most profitable agribusiness sectors of the country.
The stakeholders have taken responsibility for their tasks and agreed to commit their resources for timely delivery of results. Right after the meeting, a representative from the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries said that:
“The meetings provided a lot of valuable knowledge and insights into developments in the beekeeping sector” that he did not yet know about.
This enables him to develop better policies and apply resources of the Ministry to address the critical issue of increasing honey production.
This meeting was the third one since ProFound took the initiative of bringing the stakeholders together in early 2016. The quarterly meetings have become a platform to identify and solve problems in the sector that need to be addressed through joint action.