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"Don’t buy this type of honey, buy this. The other one is not good.” This was the recommendation of a supermarket staff in Remera last week as she insisted I buy the "honey that comes from Nyungwe.”

Her argument, there’s a rise, on the market, of honey products that contain adulterated ingredients such as sugar syrup and crushed yellow bananas as producers seek to increase quantities and maximise profit.

Health practitioners have also raised these concerns.

Rene Tabaro, a Senior Nutritionist at King Faisal Hospital (KFH), says that rather than take some of the local honey products, which are adulterated, it is safer to take processed sugar.

While more Rwandans, especially the ones with different health conditions, are now turning to honey as a sweetener as opposed to processed sugar, Tabaro says, it was difficult to find honey that is 100 per cent natural on the local market.

"In that case, you would rather take (processed) sugar,” Tabaro says.

Concerns of poor quality prompted Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to inspect honey production on February 4, 2021.

The findings by Rwanda FDA confirmed that there was adulteration of honey by different producers.

A circular signed by the Acting Director-General of Rwanda FDA, Dr Charles Karangwa, indicated that a malpractice known as "economically motivated adulteration” is prevalent in the honey producing industry.

Economically motivated adulteration is defined as fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of a substance in a product for the purpose of increasing the apparent value of the product or reducing the cost of its production, that is, for economic gain.

The Rwanda FDA said that in order to ensure honey quality and safety, honey should be sold with no any food ingredients or other substances added to it as stated in the standard for honey.

Hard task

According to Aimé Musoda, a honey dealer in Kimironko, detecting adulterated honey is difficult because the ingredients used look and taste like natural honey.

"It is difficult to distinguish because most of us get our honey from local apiaries who produce it in forests. By the time it gets here, we can’t be sure if it has been adulterated or not. We only work on trust,” says Musoda.

Rwanda is known to be among the countries that produce the best honey especially for export, however, adulteration for local consumption threatens to jeopardise industry efforts.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Rwanda’s honey production industry has grown tremendously over the last two decades and will continue to grow over the next three years.

The UN agency together with Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), say they are working on a joint programme to increase honey production and revitalize the sector by developing the capacities of beekeepers to improve their livelihood and incomes

"The beekeeping industry in Rwanda has made major advances in the past 20 years, although production is still mainly through traditional methods,” FAO said last month.

According to official projects, Rwanda eyes 8, 611 metric tonnes of honey by 2023/24.

Figures from RAB also show there are about 120,000 beekeepers in the country, of whom only 35 per cent apply modern beekeeping practices.

The targeted apiarists will be trained in apiary management, control of bee diseases and pests, field monitoring of honey and other bee products standards and traceability, and marketing planning, handling, among others.

They will also receive bee equipment like modern hives and accessories, honey extractors and sieves, candy sugar, smokers, bee suits, processing equipment and other beekeeping materials for harvesting.

Quality standards

In a bid to ensure quality, the Rwanda FDA last month announced new regulations that players in the honey industry must adhere to in order to ensure the quality and standard of honey are not tampered with.

The guidelines outline how honey must be packaged, without adding other food ingredients, including food additives, sugar or other substances as well as labelling standards which must be complied with.

The regulatory body also said that honey manufacturers must ensure that the source of the honey is clearly indicated, its type, production process and they should also be registered and their address known.

Honey manufacturers are also required to use clear distribution lines and use proper business procedures like invoicing, record keeping and other formalities while distributors and retailers are also required to verify the source of the honey before buying and selling it.

They are also required to report to the Rwanda FDA when they suspect that honey is adulterated.

Rwanda FDA warns that manufacturers and distributors of adulterated honey risk facing heavy fines.