Group sees sweet profit in honey-making venture

It started as a business concept which developed after attending an entrepreneurship seminar training in 2009 on how to earn income from beekeeping. At present Rene T. Arreglo now has nine beekeeping facilities that are producing honey for them to sell.

Arreglo said the beekeeping seminar, which was sponsored by the Kapamilya Negosya Na (KNN) organizers – University of San Carlos and ABS-CBN – and the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2009, inspired him and five other colleagues to venture into the beekeeping business.

“After attending that seminar, the six of us created a corporation and decided to venture into beekeeping. We then submitted a feasibility study to the KNN organizers,” he said.

Their business proposal passed the scrutiny of the KNN organizers and they were chosen as one of the winners of the KNN program in 2009. They were given P10,000 to start their business.

“We started with an old structure within the Department of Agriculture compound in Mandaue City and used only the P10,000 cash as our investment,” he said.

Using the knowledge they gained from the beekeeping seminar, Arreglo and his partners successfully expanded their bee farm, which measures only almost 150 square meters.

They also increased the number of bee frames and earned their first income from them.

“Their are two ways to earn in the beekeeping business. One is selling the honey produced and second is selling frames to those who also wants to start their own bee farm,” he said.

Their first sale of bee frames happened 90 days after they started the business in September 2009 and earned P17,000.

“So from that alone we already earned a P7,000 profit from our initial P10,000. We then used this to expand more and opened other bee keeping facilities in other areas in Cebu,” he said.

In 2010, Arreglo’s group then decided to create the Barangay Entrepreneurship Development Association of Cebu, Inc. with all other marginalized people in the society who wants to start a business that only requires small investment.

“BEDA was then officially formed in January 6 this year after three months of planning and processing last year,” he said.

Arreglo was made the vice president for marketing of Beda.

“Now we have beekeeping in Carcar City, Dumaguete City, Cordova, Nivell Hills in Lahug, Bohol, Talamban, Canduman, V&G in Consolacion, Lantad in Naga town and the latest is in Lourdes Village which we have just started,” he said.

Arreglo said that their average production rate at present is at 300 kilos of honey every month from May to August which is the honey months with the bees going around more actively for the summer months.

“We are selling our honey products at P180 per 300 grams bottle or at P160 per 300 grams bottle for wholesale transaction of 12 bottles,” he said.

Arreglo said the honey business has a huge potential given the high demand for the product for pharmaceuticals and industrial use in the country today, which remains “under-supplied.”

“According to figures from 2005 to 2010, the country needs 300 tons of honey every year but the total production is only at 50 tons which means we have a backlog of 250 tons. That’s a lot and we are encouraging more people to invest in this business as well,” he said.

Arreglo and his team also conduct trainings on beekeeping for at least P3,500 and from there one can start with only three frames, which already contain a complete brood of bees needed to start a colony of 10 frames.

The 10 frames can be split to three frames after 90 days.

“This business doesn’t need very big investment and would not require you to have a very big space so it’s very feasible,” he said.

Arreglo said BEDA plans to create and introduce organic products to the market soon.

“We have a lot of products now aside from our pure honey and soon we’d like to also introduce organic products like our organic mangoes which uses organic fertilizers,” Arreglo said.