According to a Recorder Report from Peshawar (September 20), the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority has started work on preparation of a strategy for development of the country's honey sector through increasing productivity, improvement in quality and exploring the export market more vigorously.
Javid Khattak, Manager, Smeda Peshawar, initiator of the proposed strategy, dwelt at length, in an interview, on the need and ways of making the best of the honey produced in the country. According to him, the traditions and the natural and economic conditions in the big honey producing countries, such as China, USA, European Union, Argentina, Mexico and Australia, reveal wide variations, as increasing competition demands more and more emphasis on cost reduction, standardisation and intensive production.
As he pointed out, Pakistan produces about 1300 tons of honey annually, of which 250 tons is of Berry variety. Most of this good quality honey is exported to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and to some Western countries, and total honey export from Pakistan amounts to Rs 220 million approximately, thereby leaving quite a large surplus to be marketed abroad.
As for its potential in the NWFP, he referred to the belts of Swat, Naran, Kaghan and southern districts, Kohat and Karak, in particular.
The whole thrust of Khattak's approach was on increasing export of honey, and he pointed out these areas in the NWFP were playing a pivotal role in honey production, hence deserving policy measures, aimed at facilitating them technologically, with due focus on quality.
Understandable, as such, should also be his observation that the NWFP Agriculture University could prove instrumental in improving the production of honey. Certainly, there can be no denying his emphasis on the dire need for more efforts in the sphere of honey processing, in order to ensure that the product comes up to international standards. So he proposed a number of steps for ensuring a larger share in global honey market.
That Smeda has taken up the issue with University of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar, for development of honey processing machines for automated quality processing, should also add to the merit of his suggestions for making Pakistani honey catch up with the quality in demand in the world honey market, and ensuring standardisation in processing strictly in conformity with international health standards.
This is why, as he explained, the proposed strategy laid due stress on the need of replacing the traditional manual processing and hand-driven machines to facilitate intensive production. These out-moded machines must, of course, yield place to technologically-advanced and faster machines to ensure desired results.
All this, plus the emphasis on attractive packaging with proper labelling, as also depicting the nutrition constituents and quality standard, is expected to provide national honey products with a competitive advantage in the global market.
He is reported to have said, perhaps, casually, that since honey industry is mainly located in the rural areas of the province, the 'rural industrial development' programme could be taken a step further by helping the honey industry of the province.
However, what he seems to have missed, is making a beginning from the very beginning. For, essentially, the honey industry forms part of the highly developed food industry in the major exporting countries with whom we aspire to compete. Viewed in this perspective, any big effort in that direction should unmistakably start from bee-keeping which is still largely practised in a far outdated manner.
It is really a pity that in our agricultural scheme of things, little attention has gone to its modernisation. As such, in promoting honey export in a big way, we will be running a handicap race, unless it is backed by a matching effort in a scientifically planned programme of development of bee-keeping too, through effective co-ordination with agriculture development.