01. THE SWEET CRISIS
The world consumes more honey than bees actually produce! In fact, honey is the 3rd most adulterated product on earth (after milk & olive oil). With high fructose corn syrup and other additives, over 75% honey is deceptive- adulterated, or mislabeled. (Link to the investigation). Antibiotics, pesticides and other additives pose significant health hazards!
02. BEHIND THE HIVES
Small-scale beekeepers are fragmented in deep rural/tribal pockets, un/under-trained to follow scientific beekeeping. 99%+ use poorly-made beeboxes (which irritate bees, reduce colony strength, cause heavy-metal contamination in honey) and extract unsealed, unripened, watery nectar from the brood chambers (killing larvae and eggs). Mass bottlers of honey, procure, blend and pasteurize (heat above 60°C, releasing the toxic HMF) it to bring it to the golden, crystal clear form that contains no real goodness of honey!
03. HONEY ECONOMICS
Indian Honey is often known to the world as single-grade, blended and undifferentiated. Market forces permit small-scale beekeepers to fetch paltry sums from buyers (big and small), who then process and heat the unripened liquid to produce the homogenized versions we see on store shelves. In India, the harvest cycles and the yield per hive in a season remains among the lowest, traceability is lacking, and the quality of honey falls short of the desired standards. This disincentivizes beekeeping!
Empowering Beekeepers
The challenges faced by our small-scale beekeepers result in making beekeeping unviable! Lack of viability, unsustainable agricultural practices, pesticide poisoning and habitat loss are leading to decline in bee population. This has far-reaching consequences that extend to our food security and survival on the planet.
Our 'string-of-pearls' model instills scientific and ethical beekeeping practices, maximizes hive productivity, narrows information asymmetry, reduces the gender divide (by unlocking beekeeping as a low-barrier economic activity), enhances crop yields through bee-managed pollination, mitigates climate change, and benefits the overall health of bees and ecosystems.
Our Solution-Stack
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Building Scientific Capacities through the BEEKIND App
Our app-driven solutions empower beekeepers with AI-driven decision support, vernacular interfaces for speech and text inputs, and continuous learning through stage-appropriate videos, expert and community connects. , ensuring thriving bee colonies and higher yields.
By democratizing access to support and knowledge through technology and vernacularization, we are enabling beekeepers to better manage their hive health, diagnose diseases, improve honey production, and improve their livelihoods.
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Quality input-supplies through E-BAZAAR
Though our app-based E-BAZAAR, we provide precision-engineered high-quality bee-boxes (made of hardwood and following BIS-standards for Apis Mellifera and Apis Cerena Indica), essential tools, and quality colonies, to run the apiary. This equips beekeepers with the right tools to ensure the well-being of their bees and maximize hive productivity and higher-quality honey.
We are also introducing beekeepers to harvest other hive products including beeswax, pollen, propolis, royal jelly and beesvenom, for maximum income potential.
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Fair Forward Market Linkage with HUMBLE BEE
With HUMBLE BEE, we are driven by a commitment to bring you the absolute best, finest and authentic honey, a source of health and goodness you can trust, and counter the mass-produced and artificial imitations.
HUMBLE BEE aims to elevate India as the world's honey capital, providing sustainable livelihoods to millions of young men and women in the apiculture sector. We are looking to build a self-perpetuating cycle of scientific and ethical beekeeping, enhancing food security, and taking decisive steps toward a more sustainable, climate-resilient future.
Beyond Sweetness: A Commitment to Ethics, Empowerment and Ecosystem
Humble Bee Honey represents more than just sweetness—it symbolizes our unwavering dedication to ethical practices, empowering beekeepers and sustaining the ecosystem.