Assessment of Honey Production System, Constraints and Opportunities in Ethiopia

Africa is blessed with numerous types of wild honeybees [1]. Ethiopia is one of the countries in the continent which possess huge honey production potential. Owing to its varied ecological and climatic conditions, Ethiopia is the home of diverse flora and fauna in Africa. In Ethiopia, ancient tradition for beekeeping is stretched back into the millennia of the country’s early history which created a difficult to establish a time reference when beekeeping was started. However, some report confirmed that it was started a date 5000 years back and the Hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt refers to Abyssinia used as the source of honey and beeswax. Thus, Abyssinia has been known for its bee wax export for centuries during when other items were not exportable [2]. Since, it had ideal climatic conditions and diversified floral resources which allow the country to sustain around 10 million honeybee colonies (7 million were kept in local beehives by farmers and the remaining exist in the forests as wild colonies) and makes the country to have the highest bee density and the leading producer of honey and beeswax in Africa [3,4].