MEKELLE UNIVERSITY OPENED TWO NEW MSC LEVEL BEE-

KEEPING EDUCATION PROGRAMS

(Contributed by Mr. Mohammed Tilahun, Email: mohammedtilahun@yahoo.com)

The API News The API News is a quarterly sector newsletter published by the ETHIOPIAN APICULTURE BOARD

Volume 6 Number 2, June 2019

The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the EAB 1

The MSc programs are opened in part-

nership with national and international

institutions.

The New MSc Programs are:

1. MSc in Honeybee Products Pro-

cessing Technology

The MSc program in Honey Bee Prod-

ucts Processing Technology is new in

Ethiopia. The program is demanded

and financially supported by the

EMDIDI (Ethiopian Meat and Dairy In-

dustry Development Institute) as a re-

sult of the growing industrial park con-

struction in the country which is attract-

ing the bee product processors. There

is ample reason that the existing and

new honeybee products processing

companies suffer from lack of trained

manpower due to the unavailability of

higher education programs in the sec-

tor.

This program is therefore designed to

produce qualified and competent grad-

uates that can undertake and manage

bee product processing and generate

technologies in the field that will satisfy

the demand of the sector in Ethiopia.

The program content

The program has five competence

based modules that can be delivered in

two years duration. The courses in this

program will be delivered in 42 credit

hours (118 ECTS) and the MSc thesis

research will have 8 credit hours equiv-

alent to 60 ECTS load. The department

has sufficient staffs to deliver courses

and supervise students during their

study. The department has the Bee

Breeding Center, apiary sites, and la-

boratories. The nearby institutions in-

volved in research, honey processing

and farms for practical demonstrations

are additional opportunities. The large

scale project supported by the Agricul-

tural Innovation Market Place (Brazil) is

also another potential that will support

students to carry out their research

work.

Continue reading on the next pages

INSIDE

Mekelle University Opened MSc

Beekeeping Education...….…...1-3

Message from the Editors….…….2

Sector News………..……....….….3

International Organic Bee-

keeping Conference…….3-4

APIMONDIA Statement on

Honey Fraud…………….5-6

EAB Bids to Host API-

MONDIA Congress 2023...6

Facts about Beeswax…..6-8

World Bee Day Message…8

Upcoming Events………….………8

Mekelle University (MU) is a government-funded higher education institution

with an international reputations for teaching, research and collaborative activi-

ties. Since its establishment, it has proved to be one of the fastest growing

Universities in Ethiopia. Its ultimate goal is to pursue standards of excellence

in teaching, research and community service. At present, MU hosts over

31,000 students in the regular, continuing education, summer and evening

programs (www.mu.edu.et).

In order to respond to the growing demands of the beekeeping sector for

trained man power both at national, regional and international levels, MU ap-

proved two new MSc programs.

Impressum API NEWS - Apiculture Sector Newsletter Vol. 6 No. 2 (2019) Published quarterly by the Ethiopian Apiculture Board Legehar, Churchill Avenue Teklu Desta Bldg, 2

nd Floor

P.O.Box 2307 Tel: +251 115248106 Website: www.ethioapiboard.org Email:ethioapic2012@gmail.com

Responsible: Negash Bekena, GM, EAB Tel: +251 115248106 Email:ethioapic2012@gmail.com

Editorial Committee: Dr. Juergen Greiling, Senior Advisor, EAB, Tel: +251 1152 48032, Email: drgreilingjuergen@gmail.com Talila Keno, Planning and Programming Head, EAB, Tel: +251 1152 48032 Email: talila.keno@gmail.com Admassu Addi, ESAS, Telephone: +251 911 399987 Email: admassuaddi@gmail.com

2

MESSAGE FROM THE EDITORS

Dear Readers, Welcome to API NEWS Vol 6 No 2, 2019! This issue of our sector newsletter is the second one in the year 2019. The need for trained manpower in the beekeeping sec-tor of Ethiopia is ever increasing as indus-trial park construction is stepping up. This time, we came up with a good news that Mekelle University has opened two MSc level beekeeping education programs. This report is presented on pages 1-3 of this news letter. Under the sector news section of this publication, we have presented top-ics such as: 5

th International Organic Bee-

keeping Conference presented on pages 3 and 4; APIMONDIA Statement on Honey Fraud (part two) on pages 5 and 6; news about EAB’s preparations to bid for hosting APIMONDIA Congress 2023 in Ethiopia is presented on page 6. Some facts about beeswax (part two) is communicated on pages 6,7 and 8. Last but not least, we have made accessible a short message from African Apiculture Platform Executive Committee about WORLD BEE DAY cele-brations and concluded by an advertise-ment of the upcoming apiculture events which is on page 8. Enjoy reading and send us your comments, suggestions and contributions. Thank you! With best regards,

Talila Keno / Editorial Committee

For the Editorial Board

The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the EAB

የአዘጋጆቹ መልእክት

ውድ አንባቢዎች እንኳን ወደ ቅጽ 6 ቁጥር 2 የንብ ዜና ዕትማችን በደህና መጣችሁ፡፡ ይህ የ2019 ዓ.ም. ሁለተኛ የንብ ዜና ዕትማችን ነዉ፡፡ በኢትዮጵያ የኢንዱስትሪ ፓርኮች ግንባታ መጧጧፍና የንብ ዘርፍ ዉጤቶች ፍላጎት መጨመር፥ ለንብ ዘርፍ የሰለጠኑ ባለሙያዎች ፈላጎት በከፍተኛ ደረጃ መጨመር ምክንያት ሆኗል፡፡ በንብ ዘርፍ በከፍተኛ የትምህርት ደረጃ የሰለጠኑ ባለሙያዎችን ፍላጎት ለማሟላት የመቀሌ ዩንቨርሲቲ በማስቴር የትምህርት ደረጃ የሚመረቁበትን ፕሮግራም ከፍቷል፡፡ ይህንን የያዘ የዜና ዝርዝር በ ገጽ 1-3 ላይ አቅርበናል፡፡ የንብ ሀብት ዘርፍን የሚመለከት ዜና ደግሞ በተለያዩ አርዕስቶች ላይ ቀርቧል፡፡ ከነዚህም ዉስጥ 5ኛ የዓለምአቀፍ “ኦርጋንክ” የንብ ዕርባታን የሚመለከት በገጽ 3 ና 4 ላይ እናስነብባለን፡፡ እንዲሁም ከዓለምአቀፍ የአናቢዎች ፌዴሬሸን በንብ ዉጤቶች ዉስጥ ስለሚጨመሩ ባዕድ የሆኑ ነገሮች የተሰጠ መግላጫ በገጽ 5ና6 ላይ ያገኙታል፡፡ የኢትየዮጵያ ንብ ሀብት ቦርድ የ2023 አፕሞንዲያ ኮንግረስን በሀገራችን ለመጀመሪያ ጊዜ ለማዘጋጀት እየሰራ መሆኑን የሚገልጽ ጽሁፍ በገጽ 6 ላይ ቀርቧል፡፡ እንድሁም ሰምን የተመለከተ ጽሁፍ በገጽ 6፥ 7 ና 8 ላይ አቅርበናል፡፡ በስተመጨረሻም ከአፍሪካ የንብ ዘርፍ “ፕላትፎርም” አሰተዳደር የዓለምአቀፍ የንቦች ቀንን አሰመልክቶ የላኩትን መልዕክት በገጽ 8 ላይ አቅርበናል፡፡

ለዚህ እትም ስኬታማነት ላበረከቱት አስተዋጽኦ ሁሉ ምስጋናችንን እያቀረብን፤ ሁላችሁም ለሚቀጥለው እትማችን ጥሩ ተሞክሮዎችንና ስኬታማ ስራዎችን እንዲታካፍሉን ጥሪ እናቀርባለን፡፡

ከሰላምታ ጋር

ተሊላ ቀኖ ስለ ኢዲቶሪያል ኮሚቴው

Mekelle University Cont…

Program duration: Two years de-signed for regular program only Course work duration: One year Thesis work duration: One year Eligible candidates: Applicants must hold first degree in the field of Animal Science, Animal Production, Animal Pro-duction and Technology, Animal and Range Sciences, Biology, Food Process Engineering, Food Science and Post-harvest Technology, Veterinary Scienc-es, Biotechnology and Chemistry from accredited higher learning institutions with cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 2.00 and above. Selection will be done by EMDIDI and MU. Admission: Every year Program home base: Department of Animal, Rangeland and Wildlife Scienc-

es (Mekelle University) Special opportunity for students: Full tuition fee waved by MU and thesis re-search support from EMDIDI

2. MSc in Apiculture The purpose

The MSc program in Apiculture was one of the demanded graduate programs in Ethiopia during the need assessment survey conducted by the department of Animal, Rangeland and Wildlife Scienc-es of Mekelle University. The program is demanded as a result of the untapped potential of the country for beekeeping and growing industrial park construction in the country which is attracting the bee product processors. There is ample rea-son that the existing graduate programs in the country could not satisfy the need of the sector as many researches and higher education sector is carried out by

nonprofessionals in apiculture. The api-culture sub sector suffers from lack of trained human resources due to insuffi-cient higher education programs in api-culture in the country. This program is therefore designed to produce qualified and competent graduates that can un-dertake and manage the beekeeping sub sector and generate technologies in the field that will satisfy the demand of the sub sector in Ethiopia. The program content The program has six competence based modules that can be delivered in two years duration. The courses in this pro-gram will be delivered in 32 credit hours (53 ECTS). The MSc thesis research will have 6 credit hours (10 ECTS) load. The col-lege has sufficient staffs to deliver cours-es and supervise students during their study.

Continue reading on page 3

3 The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the EAB

Mekelle University Cont… The department has the Bee Breeding Center, apiary sites, and laboratories to support this program. The nearby insti-tutions involved in research, honey pro-cessing and farms for practical demon-strations are additional opportunities as potential practical education platforms. The large scale project supported by the Agricultural Innovation Market Place (Brazil) is also another potential that will support students to carry out their re-search work. Program duration: Two years Course work duration: One year

Thesis work duration: One year Eligible candidates: The applicant must hold an acceptable first degree in Animal science, Animal production, Ani-mal production technology, Animal and range sciences, Biology, Veterinary sci-ences, Forestry, Agroforestry, Chemis-try, Agricultural economics and Agricul-tural extension fields from accredited higher learning institutions with cumula-tive grade point average (CGPA) of 2.00 and above. Admission: Every year will be an-nounced on Mass media, Program home base: Department of Animal,

Rangeland and Wildlife Sciences Mekelle University Special opportunity for students: Candidates are expected to pay the tui-tion fee by themselves or their sponsors however the Africa Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace project will sup-port full thesis research cost for 15 stu-dents. Contact information Mr. Gebremedhn Beyene Head Department of Animal, Rangeland and Wildlife Sciences, P.O.Box 231; Mekelle,Ethiopia, Tele: +251910439642 Email:gebremedhnb2008@gmail.com

SECTOR NEWS THE 5TH INTERNATIONAL OR-GANIC BEEKEEPING CONFER-ENCE, STUTTGART, GERMANY

(Contributed by Tewelde Gebre-tinsae, Email:

teweldeg2008@gmail.com) The theme of the conference was ‘’Beekeeping and honey bees caught between the conflicting de-mands of society, business and en-vironment.’’ The conference was jointly organized by the University of Hohenheim and IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement). It lasted for three days from 01-03 March, 2019; with different subthemes in each day. These were:

relevance of social and politi-cal developments to bees and beekeeping;

bee health; and

apitherapy in the first, sec-ond and third days, respec-tively.

Participants of the conference included distinguished researchers, develop-ment actors, and beekeepers from different organizations throughout the world. “Bees for Development” (Dr. Nicola Bradbear), “Bees for the World” (Dr. Wolfgang Ritter), Wa-geningen University and Research, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Ethiopian Ministry of Agri-culture and Rural Development, Agri-cultural Transformation Agency (ATA), GIZ-Ethiopia, French National Institute of Agricultural Research, and Natur-land e.V were some of the represented organizations. Presentations took place in two paral-lel sessions separated as German and

English language speaking. I partici-pated in the presentations that were delivered in English. These sessions were scheduled for 2 days and the third day on apitherapy was merged with the German language session, but I could still tap the key messages. Overall, I found the conference rele-vant, important and interesting for me and for Ethiopia at large. I would like to share some of the key points that I have extracted from the conference, 1) Warm welcome and keynote

speeches were made by the host/organizer/sponsor organizations represented by Prof. Dr. Martin Hasselmann (University of Hohen-heim), Mrs. Friedlinde Gurr-Hirsch (State Minister of the Ministry for Rural Development and Consumer protection, Baden-Wuerttemberg), Prof. Dr. Ralf T. Voegele (Faculty of Agriculture, University of Hohen-heim), Mr. Steffen Reese (NATURLAND) for all participants together before splitting into the sessions.

2) Dr. Ives le Conte (French National Institute for Agricultural Research - INRA) presented on varroa tolerant honey bees in France based on behavioural (hygiene, grooming, uncapped brood duration), olfactory (role of antenna) and microsatellite (molecular) studies using feral bees.

3) Dr. Nicola Bradbear (Bees for De-velopment) gave an overview of beekeeping in some African coun-tries, mainly Ethiopia, Uganda and Zambia. Based on her life-time ex-perience, she concluded that sim-ple beekeeping methods are better for the bees’ health, environment and farmers’ livelihood as they al-low the bees to renew themselves

(through swarming) and are locally available free of cost. Dr. Nicola recommends the use of terms such as: simple hive instead of “traditional hive”, frame hive in-stead of “modern hive”, local or ecological beekeeping method in-stead of “traditional beekeeping method”. She has demonstrated the impacts of her project in a household in Amhara region by introducing top bar hives. Dr. Nico-la seems to really like the Ethiopian “simple beekeeping system” and wants it to be maintained. I agree with her on the utilization of local resources and local wisdom but we need to make the system economi-cally feasible.

4) Dr. Tjeerd Blaquiere (WUR) pre-sented details of a project on bee breeding and selection for varoa tolerance.

5) Beekeepers Jorge Alberto Pech Martín & Feliciano Ucan Poot (Colectivo de Comunidades Mayas de los Chenes, a beekeeping coop-erative from Mexico) shared their first hand experiences on the chal-lenges of monoculture (large scale GMO soya cultivation). Deforesta-tion, mechanized farming and chemical application were elaborat-ed as the consequences. Fingers were pointed towards MONSAN-TO, an agrochemical and agricul-tural biotechnology corporate from the US which was recently ac-quired by BAYER Crop Sciences.

6) Dr. Hannes Beims (Braunschweig Technical University) discussed promising results that prove bacte-rial phages can be used to effec-tively treat American Foul Brood without any side effect, replacing current practices of burning, shock-swarm, and antibiotic uses.

4 The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the EAB

BEKEEPING CONFERENCE…

7) Dr. Paul d’Alvise (Institute of Animal Science, University of Hohenheim) presented interesting results on sea-sonal dynamics (prevalence and the level of infestation) of different path-ogens of the honey bees in Baden-Wuerttemberg based on molecular analysis using state of the art meth-odologies.

8) Dr. Wolfgang Ritter (Bees for the World), in his presentation entitled “The African way: healthy bee colo-nies and sustainable income mainte-nance”, shared the idea that tradi-tional hives enable the bees swarm and leave their infested hives, which is a natural method of colony renew-al and -sanitation. He discussed that honey bees preferred narrow hive entrance (15 cm) and 3 to 5 meters height of hive placement (such as hanging over trees etc).

9) Dr. Silvio Erler (Martin Luther Uni-versity) presented impressive results on the role of royal jelly, pollen, and honey on the health of bees. Royal jelly contains amino acids that have antibiotic properties, infected bees select pollen from specific flowers (mainly sunflower) for their medicinal values, and honey has chemicals that suppress pathogens besides to the osmotic role of the sugar in hon-ey against microorganisms. The message to be taken home was the need to focus on promoting biodiver-sity for the bees to be able to choose their medicinal pollen, avoid mono-culture and antibiotics.

10) René Sayago (from Argentina) shared experiences on the develop-ment of certified organic beekeeping in Gran Chaco, a region in Argentina with 1 million km

2 dry forest and a

home of 7 million economically mar-ginalized people. Normally, conven-tional honey seems to be very cheap in the country but now they found a way to improve incomes through organic beekeeping.

11)Ato Solomon Mengesha (GIZ-Ethiopia) highlighted an overview of the potential and status of Ethiopian beekeeping along with efforts of gov-ernmental and non-governmental organizations. Moreover, he intro-duced the different local brands of Ethiopian honey to the audience.

12)Roman and Erik Tihelke, young brothers who are hobby beekeepers from CZ/UK shared fascinating inno-vations in their beekeeping and mar-keting with the support of ICT includ-ing customized online shopping and

postal delivery. Their apiary is not just to produce honey but used for educational visits, apitourism, ap-itherapy etc.

13)Roland Schneider (NATURLAND e.V. Brazil) is a senior person, a very passionate and innovative German beekeeper in Brazil. He started his beekeeping in Brazil in 2000 and now produces a wide range of prod-ucts including different monofloral honeys (specifically required for me-dicinal values), comb honey, pollen, propolis, wax, candles etc. He re-ported that propolis accounts for 40% of his beekeeping income. Alt-hough they are African bees, he manages them friendly using select-ed ingredients of plant species for smoking that liked by the bees, calms down defensive bees by providing away a 1 to 5 water diluted honey filled in empty combs while working with them, applies less fre-quent inspections (he doesn’t want to bother the bees). Mr. Roland de-scribes Brazil as if a continent where you can find all ranges of beekeep-ing from subsistence to investors with more than 1000 hives that ex-port up 17,000 tonnes of honey in a year. Poor infrastructure, varroa, deforestation, desertification due to climate change (example: annual rainfall reduced from around 2000 mm in 2000 when he begun his bee-keeping to around 1200 mm at pre-sent) were discussed as the main challenges. Some beekeepers in Brazil apply chemical treatment against varroa destructor despite the fact that they keep varroa tolerant African bees, while other beekeep-ers in the same country who car-ryout beekeeping in hot, dry areas with the same bees don’t need to treat against varroa since such cli-mate appears to be not suitable for the mite to multiply, hence the bees can cope up with voroa mite in hot, dry areas.

14) Dr. Manuel Narjes (Institute of Farm Management, University of Hohen-heim) reported cases on bee pollina-tion from the US, Germany and Thailand. He stated the growth in crop cultivation that requires insect pollinators has ever been significant-ly higher than the increase in the number of bee colonies globally. Extreme case of the Californian Al-mond orchard that contract up to 76% of the total colonies of the US (about 2.6 million) for pollination ser-vice through migratory beekeeping with the help of brokers, which in-

volve several drawbacks. Some parts of Southern Germany were mentioned as emerging pollination markets (21 Euro/colony) without the engagement of brokers. In contrary, commercial beekeepers in Thailand have to pay to the crop farmers for placing their hives. It has been cal-culated that costs of 50% decline in wild pollinators (estimated financial loss due to decline in populations of wild pollinators) to be 8000 Euro in 198 households and about 230 Euro in 188 ha of cultivated land.

15) Dr. Stefan Stangaciu (German Ap-itherapy Association) described ap-itherapy as integrated methods that use all beehive products (at least 10 products) to heal any living being (human, animal, and plants) from more than 800 diseases. He outlined guidelines for producing better quali-ty products (free from chemicals, residues/foreign particles and patho-gens), in compliance with apitherapy guidelines, by selecting clean sites, applying no antibiotics and handling products hygienically. However, the level (composition) of active sub-stance varies based on the floral sources, and those different mon-ofloral honeys (e.g. eucalyptus and manuca) are required to treat differ-ent diseases.

16) Prof. Dr. Karsten Muenstedt (Ortenau Clinical Center, Gynaco-logical Hospital Offenburg) ques-tioned if there is a significant differ-ence in the therapeutic properties of organic honey and conventional honey, demanded for research based scientific evidence on the overwhelming claims on pro-apitherapy. He said that there is no adequate research that proves the claims of apitherapists that honey heals almost everything. He advises that pharmaceutical laws of Germa-ny that require certification need to be considered by apitherapists. The dose, ingredients and application methods of apitherapy are incon-sistent throughout the literature. He recommended that risks of contami-nated hive products (pathogen, chemical), allergy and level of active substances should be considered. He concluded that honey doesn’t heal everything. But inhalation to treat sore throats and application on wounds are some of the illnesses that can be safely treated with hon-ey. Honey can be used in combina-tion with conventional medicines that are scientifically proven against ill-nesses.

5 The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the EAB

APIMONDIA STATEMENT ON HONEY FRAUD (PART 2)*

(Contributed by Dr. Juergen Greiling, Email: drgreilingjuergen@gmail.com) 1. OVERVIEW It is historically well documented that honey has long been subject to fraud (Crane, 1999), however the conditions for honey fraud have never before been so well aligned: 1. honey is becoming a scarce and ex-

pensive-to-produce product; 2. there is an opportunity for strong

profits through fraud; 3. the modes of honey adulteration rap-

idly change; 4. official method, EA-IRMS (AOAC

998.12), cannot detect most current modes of honey adulteration.

Honey fraud is a criminal and intentional act committed to obtain an economic gain by selling a product that is not up to standards. Different types of honey fraud can be achieved through: 1) dilution with different syrups pro-

duced, e.g. from corn, cane sugar, beet sugar, rice, wheat, etc.;

2) harvesting of immature honey, which is further actively dehydrated by the use of technical equipment, including but not limited to vacuum dryers;

3) using ion-exchange resins to re-move residues and lighten honey colour;

4) masking and/or mislabelling the geo-graphical and/or botanical origin of honey;

5) artificial feeding of bees during a nectar flow.

The product which results from any of the above described fraudulent methods shall not be called “honey” neither the blends containing it, as the standard only allows blends of pure honeys. 2. MODES OF HONEY PRODUCTION

APIMONDIA supports those production methods that allow bees to fully do their job in order to maintain the integrity and quality of honey for the satisfaction of consumers who seek all the natural goodness of this product. APIMONDIA rejects the developing of methods in-tended to artificially speed up the natu-ral process of honey production through an undue intervention of man and tech-nology that may lead to a violation of the honey standard. 3. THE IMPACT OF HONEY ADUL-

TERATION The Executive Council of APIMONDIA has recently defined honey fraud as one of the two major challenges to the viabil-

ity of beekeeping globally. APIMONDIA aims to play an increasingly important role in driving solutions to honey fraud in the future as the voice that represents world beekeepers. According to the U.S. Pharmacopeia’s Food Fraud Database, honey ranks as the third “favorite” food target for adul-teration, only behind milk and olive oil (United States Pharmacopeia, 2018). Similarly, the European Union has iden-tified honey to be at high risk to be fraudulent (European Parliament, 2013). The European Commission (2018) con-siders that four essential elements must be present in a case of food fraud:

intentionality;

violation of law (in this case, the CA definition of honey);

purpose of economic gain and

consumer’s disappointment. Likewise, five odes of honey production were identified that violate the Codex Alimentarius standard, in the areas of production / bee management, post - harvest and processing. Honey fraud in its five different modes has resulted in at least three visible consequences in the international market:

a downward pressure on pure honey prices due to an oversupply of the product,

a disincentive to produce and export pure honeys by several traditional countries, which have shown signifi-cant decreases in their export vol-umes during the past years, and

the appearance of new exporting countries, that re-export cheap im-ports, straightly or in blends, as lo-cally produced.

As long as honey fraud, customs fraud and the violation of national and interna-tional trade laws persist, the wellbeing and stability of world beekeepers remain in jeopardy. With only some exceptions, current honey prices paid to the bee-keeper are not sustainable. If the cur-rent situation of low prices persists, many beekeepers will abandon the ac-tivity, and those who decide to continue will not be incentivized to keep their cur-rent number of beehives. Honey fraud goes against defending honey’s image as a natural product and against efforts to protect honest bee-keeping. It also happens at the expense of consumers who often do not receive the product they expect and pay for. The overall result is a threat to food safety, food security and ecological sus-tainability. In order to better understand the magni-tude of the problem, we must remember that honey is the best-known product of

bees but surely not the most important one. Bees, through their pollination work, are essential for the mainte-nance of the planet's biodiversity and absolutely necessary for the pollina-tion of many crops that represent 35% of all our food.

4. THE SOLUTION The strategy to combat honey fraud must include:

awareness of the beekeeping com-munity through presentations and

publications; awareness of consumers through the

media;

awareness of retailers and packers on the need to improve testing in countries with legislation that does not fulfill the criteria of the CA and whose product could not be export-ed to countries where the CA stand-ard applies;

awareness and collaboration with national authorities who should peri-odically review their honey standards and use the best available methods for the detection of honey fraud;

awareness and collaboration with multinational authorities and institu-tions.

5. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR AS-CERTAINING AUTHENTICITY OF HONEY

APIMONDIA recommends the use of a multi-pronged approach strategy to combat honey fraud through a combina-tion of better traceability, auditing & quality assurance programmes, and testing. In the latter, ethical stakeholders of honey trade and processing should always go a step forward, and not a step behind, in their commitment to min-imize the probability of occurrence of fraud by always using the best available method(s) to detect it. That may involve organizational as well as analytical measures. It has to be emphasized that, due to the dynamic nature of fraud, not only official and/or traditional methods are suitable for testing, but also the ade-quate application of novel technologies are indicated. It also includes the re-quirement of establishing a risk-assessment procedure with the corre-sponding preventive actions in their op-erations. APIMONDIA highly recommends a

choice of method(s) tailored to each

specific situation.

Continue reading on the next page

6 The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the EAB

Honey Fraud Cont.... In most cases, a proper honey fraud detection strategy should include a pow-erful screening method like Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). NMR is currently the best available method to detect the different modes of honey fraud. In case non – conformances are found by NMR, other targeted tests may be useful in complement to better clarify the origin of deviations. In some cases, a combination of other targeted tests (e.g. AOAC 998.12, honey-foreign en-zymes, small molecule or DNA-based syrup-specific markers, honey-foreign oligosaccharides, LC-IRMS, artificial food ingredients and acids indicative for invert sugar) may also be useful. APIMONDIA supports the development of new techniques to detect honey fraud, available at reasonable costs for the majority of stakeholders, and sup-ports the constitution of an international database of original honeys with a more open exchange of analytical information between the different laboratories spe-cialized in honey analysis. ____________ * Note that this is a shortened version; the complete statement is available from the APIMONDIA website: www.apimondia.com. If someone is interested to find all references for part 1 (last API NEWS) and part 2 this edition of the API NEWS, we will provide them upon request.

*********************************************

INTERNATIONAL BID TO HOST APIMONDIA CONGRESS 2023, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (Contributed by Negash Bekena, Email:

nbtb1963@yahoo.com)

APIMONDIA is International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations. It is work-ing for the development of the beekeep-ing sector in the world. APIMONDIA us-es two events – Symposia and Con-gresses - as a tool to promote apicul-ture and enhance sector improvement all over the world. As Ethiopia has untapped potential in the beekeeping sector, and we are pushing for the rapid improvement of the sector to unleash its potential for socio-economic development of the country, the EAB has shown interest to organize the APIMONDIA Congress, for the sec-ond time on the African continent since its establishment in 1890, to be used as a learning and sharing point for better and strategic actions to fuel up sector development efforts in the country. The Secretariat has recognised our interest and legitimacy and advised us to organ-ize an APIMONDIA Symposium to showcase event organization capacity and convince the beekeeping communi-

ty of the world. Therefore, the EAB applied to organize the APIMONDIA Symposium 2018 and successfully defended its project for en-dorsement at the APIMONDIA EC dur-ing its meeting in Istanbul. Following endorsement of its plan, the EAB, from November 30

th to December 4

th, 2018,

organized the APIMONDIA Symposium 2018 in Addis Ababa successfully in collaboration with MoA, SNV, ATA, GIZ, Oxfam Ethiopia and key actors in the country. The APIMONDIA Executive Council has been invited to be part of the event, and appreciations have been received from the EC members and par-ticipants from different parts of the world regarding successful organization and scientific program of the symposium. Based on this achievement, the EAB, as

an active member of APIMONDIA, has

applied to bid for hosting the APIMOND-

IA Congress 2023 following all the

procedures and meeting requirements

of the institution. The secretariat ac-

cepted our bid and passed it to the EC

for further review. Finally, the EC also

accepted our bid during its meeting at

Montreal, Canada on 5th May 2019 and

we got a “go ahead” message from the

secretariat for further preparation and

promotion of our bid for the desired re-

sult.

The plan, with full justification, has been presented to African actors in Abuja dur-ing Api-Expo Africa 2018. Africans agreed to make the bid an African bid and to construct African Pavilion in Mon-treal, Canada, on the occasion of this years’ APIMONDIA Congress which will be held in September, 2019. African sectoral institutions like APITRADE AF-RICA, African Apiculture Platform and AU-IBAR are ready to work together towards the required success.

Accordingly, APITRADE AFRICA has reserved a 108 sqm space at the exhibi-tion place in Montreal for Africa – the African Pavilion – as per the shared re-sponsibilities and decisions. Our share of the African Pavilion – CAD 21,400 – has been paid through ATA and all Afri-can participants will come together to promote African beekeeping resources and the APIMONDIA Congress 2023 bid to be held in Addis Ababa.

To ensure successful deliberation, the EAB has started to communicate and lobby APIMONDIA members all over the world. To this effect, the EAB has com-municated all member associations and countries in relation to World Bee Day

and indicated to be ready for formal re-quest, following the “go ahead” mes-sage from the secretariat, to support the Ethiopian bid with convincing ideas and justifications.

For further and effective deliberations, we are expecting a national consultative meeting of all stakeholders to be facili-tated by the Ministry of Agriculture and subsequent establishment of a national bid committee to handle all the required activities towards our successful interna-tional bid. After all the required prepara-tions, the bidding committee and some authorities are expected to go to Mon-treal, Canada to present our bid to the General Assembly of APIMONDIA dur-ing the 46

th APIMONDIA Congress in

September 2019.

**********************************************

FACTS ABOUT BEESWAX, PART TWO

(Contributed by Dr Wolfgang Ritter* Email: contact@beesfortheworld.de)

Collecting wax from combs Wax melts at around 65°C. Heating it too strongly or too long darkens it and changes its chemical composition. Es-pecially flavours get lost. Therefore, wax has to be extracted very carefully. Heat-ing it directly in a receptacle or between two plates implies a heavy risk of over-heating. That is why wax should be ex-tracted with utmost care in the following way:

Solar wax extractor: A machine for melting wax with solar heat makes the procedure very cost efficient. However, capacity is limited and it only works if there is enough sunshine. Moreover, in case of strong heat, very hot tempera-tures may occur damaging the wax. If the container does not close well bees can start robbing. And the wax output is smaller compared to other methods.

Continue reading on page 7

Picture 1: Solar Wax extractor (large size)

BEESWAX Cont…. Small solar wax melters (extractors) can be built easily by yourself. The box is covered by a glass pane or a plastic double-webbed slab. So the sunrays shining in can warm up the inner part of the box. At 65°C the wax starts to melt and drips into the drip pan.

Figure 1: The principle of solar wax ex-

traction (Graph from: Wolfgang Ritter,

Good beekeeping praxis (in German)

Ulmer Stuttgart/Germany)

Water bath: The combs are dived in

boiling water. The water must be non-

ferrous, therefore it is recommended to

use rainwater. First, the empty frames

are extracted and then the wax with

the remnants mainly originating from

the moulting of the brood is skimmed

from the surface. Afterwards, the wax

can be filtered by means of a sack of

jute, canvas or something similar. You

can also squeeze it out or centrifuge it.

Steam wax extractor: The wax from

the frame is melted in the upper part of

the container by producing steam, ei-

ther by electricity or by gas. The re-

mainders are strained out, and the

wax is gathered in the lower part of the

container. The containers are mostly

made of stainless steel to avoid any

influence on wax quality by metals like

iron.

Cleaning wax

The wax melted out contains impuri-

ties, which are removed at first by means of a sieve or a gauze strainer. In the following fining process, the wax is heated together with water in a heat-able pot, up to a temperate of 75° to 80°C, then left standing over night to be afterwards cooled down slowly. For this purpose, the fining pot should be well insulated; because the slower the wax is cooled down the more impuri-ties sink down. They can be easily re-moved from the bottom of the cold wax cake. For making candles the wax can be bleached by different acids (e.g. sulphuric acid, oxalic acid, citric acid or hydrogen peroxide). Some acids like hydrochloric acid damage the wax chemically. Bleached wax is not al-lowed for the production of foundations to bee use in bee colonies.

Foundations

Since Johannes Mehring manufac-tured the first comb foundation in the 19th century, it has become indispen-sable for beekeepers using frames. By means of foundations you can save honey, which would otherwise be needed for the production of the hon-eycombs. Furthermore, the processes in the bee colony such as direction and size of the combs can be influ-enced. Functions of foundations In natural combs the bees build up to

30% drone brood cells. With comb

foundations bee are forced to produce

worker cells only. Foundations do not

only limit the construction of worker

cells, they also define cell size. Most of

the moulds and foundation rollers

available on the market press comb

foundations of a cell size suitable to

European bee races (5.2 to 5.6 cm).

Depending on the bee race and size of

adult worker bees, cells of African and

Asian bees show another mostly

smaller diameter as shown in the fol-

lowing table (Table 1).

Cells of smaller or bigger diameters may cause bee health problems, be-cause they represent a severe interfer-ence with the bee colony’s life. Without the pre-setting’s by comb foundations, bees more often build irregular cells and drone combs which is believed to foster their vitality and health. To con-struct cells in a regular order meets the desires of the beekeepers more than the bees requirements.

Table 1: Size of worker cells of dif-

ferent bee races

Advantages and disadvantages of foundations: Without doubt, comb foundations make combs more stable. Combs can be turned more easily during inspec-tion. In addition, these stabilized combs can be centrifuged at a higher speed increasing honey yield. But foundations only make sense if the combs are used again. This provokes the accumulation of environmental toxins like pesticides or medical drugs (varroacides) in wax thus diminishing its quality. Moreover, sub-lethal effects have an influence on the health of the bees. The often necessary storing of combs outside the bee colony creates new problems like e. g. wax moths and the Small and the Large Hive Beetle. But also heat and moisture in storage rooms effect on the quality of the hon-eycomb and thus on the honey pro-duced in it.

Manufacturing of foundations:

Foundations are either moulded or

rolled. For this purpose, wax is directly

poured into a comb mould made of

metal or silicon. Water-cooled moulds

accelerate the process.

Continue reading on page 8

The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the EAB 7

Picture 2: Steam wax melter

(Photo: Wolfgang Ritter)

Bee races of Apis

mellifera

Distribu-tion

Average size of

worker cells (mm)

Carnica Europe 5.5

Mellifera Europe 5.4

Ligustica Europe/America

5.3

Africanized South-America

5.0

Monticola East Africa 5.0

Adansonii West Africa 4.8

Scutellata East Africa 4.8

Jemenitica Jemen, Tschad, Oman

4.7

Litorea East Africa 4.6

(Apis cerana)

East Asia 4.2 (south) -

(published by F. Ruttner, Jemenitica

Jemen, Tshad, Ethiopia, 1992)

BEESWAX Cont… Rolling foundations offer a faster pro-

duction method. In a first step, flat wax

sheets are rolled out, and in the sec-

ond step the comb cell forms are be

imprinted onto them. Those founda-

tions are generally thinner and there-

fore more elastic than moulded ones.

This method is very expensive and is

therefore mainly applied in large-scale

production.

__________________

* Dr. Wolfgang Ritter former Presi-dent of APIMONDIA scientific commis-sion for bee health and expert of world organisation of animal health (OIE) is now part of the BEES for the World. The organisation BEES for the World supports African beekeepers to pro-duce the best quality beeswax and sell their wax on the European market while promoting the African way of beekeeping which is most favourable for bees, beekeepers and the environ-ment. The income from the sales is refunded in supporting African bee-keeping communities via trainings.

* Co-authors: Ute Schneider-Ritter,

Martin Ritter and Gozde Okcu ==============//==============

WORLD BEE DAY MESSAGE FROM

AFRICAN APICULTURE PLAT-

FORM/AAP- THE CATALYTIC ROLE

OF BEES IN FOOD PRODUCTION

(Contributed by Negash Bekena,

Email: nbtb1963@yahoo.com)

As we mark this year’s World Bee

Day, the Executive Committee (EC)

of the Africa Apiculture Platform (AAP)

wishes to join other bee enthusiasts in

celebrating the “Golden Insect” and its

vital role in food security.

According to the FAO, honey bees and

other pollinating insects are currently

improving the food production of over

2 billion small farmers worldwide, help-

ing to ensure food security for the

world's population. Research shows

that if pollination is managed well on

small diverse farms, with all other

factors being equal, crop yields

can increase by 24 per cent. It is

also estimated that one third of

all the food that we consume

each day relies on pollination,

mainly by honey bees. Many of

the foods and crops we rely on

need or, at the very least, benefit

from bee pollination. Bees are

not only extremely important for

humans, but also for entire eco-

systems to function. Plants polli-

nated by bees are a major

source of animal feed and if the

food source for animals was re-

duced or lost completely, it would

cause the entire food chain to

suffer.

Taking cognizance of the role of

bees vis-à-vis the positive effect

their pollination activity has on

the quantity and quality of food crops,

it has become imperative to make con-

certed efforts towards the integration

of commercial pollination services into

all forms of agriculture.

To this end, the Executive Committee

of the Africa Apiculture Platform, wish-

es to use this medium as we celebrate

this year’s World Bee Day under the

theme “Raising Awareness on the

Role of Bees and Pollinators in

Food Production and Agriculture”

to advocate for;

An inclusive collaboration and part-

nership involving regional and na-

tional governments, development

partners, beekeeper groups, crop

farmers, researchers, civil society

organisations, financial institutions

and other relevant stakeholders in

the development of Africa’s Apicul-

ture Industry.

The intensification and commercia-

lization of pollination services in

food production and agriculture for

maximum productivity.

A regional and national approach to protect our bees from major threats ranging from the indiscriminate use of pesticides, theft and vandalism, pest and diseases, forage loss, bush burning etc.

The conservation of bee habitat and the conscientious planting of bee-friendly plants.

On this note, the AAP wishes all Bee Enthusiasts a very happy World Bee Day celebration.

In Ethiopia, May 20, World Bee day was celebrated in Addis Ababa organi-zed by Oromia Regional State at Oro-mo Cultural Centre with the title: Rai-ning Awareness on the Role of Bees and Pollinators in Food Pro-duction and Agriculture. The event had both conference session and exhi-bitions of honey products from differ-net companies. In depth detailed re-port about this event will be presented in our next ApiNews Volume 6.3, 2019.

The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the EAB 8

Picture 3: Wax moulding (Photo: Ute Schneider-Ritter), Comb foundations are manufactured quickly by means of a water-cooled mould. Picture 4: Wax rolling (right) (Photo: Wolf-gang Ritter), By means of a rolling mill, the foundation cell pattern can be imprint-ed onto wax sheets rolled out beforehand (Foto: Wolfgang Ritter)

UPCOMING EVENTS

BEECON 2019, ZEBULA CON-FERENCE CENTRE, BELA-BELA 18 – 20

TH JULY 2019

REGISTRATION ACCESS: http://beecon2019.ultimatedata.co.za/

BEECON ENQUIRIES:

beecon@sabio.org.za

APIMONDIA CONGRESS 2019,September 08 to 12, Montre-al, Canada, www.apimondia.org

10TH INTERNATIONAL MEET-ING of Young Beekeepers, Slo-venia, 3-9 July 2019 Banksa Bysstica, http://www.beesfordevelopment.org/