In Kenya, this little extra cash goes a long way. Families are able to pay for school fees, medical bills, increase their land and invest in more livestock - or hives.
Shelf life
Although bee-keeping is a traditional – and relatively low-tech business – the organization is beginning to bring it into the 21st Century.
Its latest innovation is its Swarm Database smartphone app, which allows a fleet of beekeeping technicians who inspects hives across the country to enter troves of live data on farmers, hives, honey and harvesting into Samsung smartphones.
This information feeds into a central dashboard, which helps the company track production and improves the efficiency of their honey supply. Alerts encourage regular hive inspection, whilst analytics automatically highlight opportunities and trends.
The app also allows global consumers to connect more with Kenyan beekeepers, says CEO Ayer.
For example, imagine picking up a jar of Honey Care Africa honey off the shelves of your local supermarket, scanning a QR code on the jar, and seeing the family, trees and hives that produced, along with harvest date all on your screen.
“It’s a great way to visualize traceability,” remarks Ayer.
“Honey is so easily adulterated, consumers want to keep an eye on it,” he says. “We have our eyes on honey from the bees to the shelf.”
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