Biotechnical Control of Varroa in Honey Bee Colonies: A Trade-Off between Sustainable Beekeeping and Profitability?

System Mapping of the Production and Value Chain to Explore Beekeeping Potential in Southwest Ethiopia

Ethiopia has a high potential for the production of honey and other apiary products due to its ideal agroecology. This potential is, however, not yet well utilized due to weak production and valorization systems. The study analyzed beekeeping systems and their honey value chain to detect the barriers and to explore ways to better exploit the existing potential. Descriptive statistics, a SWOT and PESTEL matrix, and system mapping were utilized for analysis. Ethiopian beekeeping is still dominated by traditional production systems, followed by modern and transitional systems, differing in types of beehives and the average amount of honey yield. The combined SWOT-PESTEL analysis revealed challenges like a limited supply and high cost of modern beehives, shortage of credit, absence of a honey marketing legal framework, pest and predator attacks, absconding, and uncontrolled application of agrochemicals. Opportunities include the globally increasing demand for honey, availability of good investment policy, conducive agroecology, and support from NGOs. The less productive techniques of smallholder beekeepers' crude honey production for local beverage making affected the good use of the potential and minimized its contribution to the local and national economy. On the contrary, strengthening private investors and cooperatives towards the production of fully and semi-processed honey impacted the utilization of the potential positively.