The Story that is ‘Meant To Bee’

Meant to Bee™ was established to respond to the challenges faced by small and emerging beekeepers in South Africa. As a result, SMEs form the core of our business model, and make up the largest source of honey and beeswax.

We engaged with beekeeping industry stakeholders across the country to identify suitable SME beekeepers. At the outset, fifteen SME’s were identified, who will benefit from investments into new hives, equipment, training, and operational mentorship. These SMEs are all active beekeepers with some training and experience in running beekeeping enterprises.

The SMEs have been assessed according to several criteria to gauge their suitability to enter the Meant to Bee™ system.

This criteria includes:

• Currently own / operate a beekeeping enterprise
• Actively making efforts to grow their own beekeeping operations
  Ownership / right to use land for beekeeping
• Have access to suitable land for additional hive installations
  Suitability of current and future land for beekeeping
• Possess basic equipment and tools to conduct beekeeping
• General training in beekeeping
• Beekeeping safety equipment training
• Training in bee removals
• Training in honey harvesting and processing
• Training in hive health and disease management

The Meant To Bee™ business model shall achieve the following:

See SME beekeepers supplied with sufficient beehives to create strong and sustainable enterprises.

The honey and wax produced in these hives will be purchased back by Meant to Bee™, providing beekeepers with a guaranteed market for their honey.

Meant To Bee™ will make use of revolutionary mobile honey processing technology to collect honey directly from SME beekeepers, process the honey on site, and pay beekeepers for higher value processed honey, instead of low value raw honey. This will significantly increase the income SME beekeepers receive.

Meant To Bee™ will then store the honey in barrels and sell on to domestic wholesalers. Once market contracts are in place and the supply of honey allows, the company will explore opportunities in bottling and direct supply of honey to both local and international markets.

Once fully operational, Meant To Bee™ will utilise company profits to invest further in SME beekeepers and additional mobile honey processing trucks to not only increase company revenue, but increase the impact on the South African beekeeping industry, create employment, and empower small beekeepers.

Meant To Bee™ will make use of industry experts to provide high quality mentorship to SME beekeepers to ensure optimum production and skills transfer.

Meant To Bee™ will provide SMEs with all necessary equipment and business support to grow their enterprises. Ownership of these beehives will be transferred to the SME beekeeper after a period of three years.