Commissioning of honey center in Wulu County. (Photo: Yang Ater).

Lakes State government and UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have commissioned a modern aggregation center for rural bee keepers that with a processing capacity of 500 tons of honey, at Wulu County.

Maxwell Sibhensana, UNFAO’s Deputy Director for Office of Emergency and Resilience (OER) said the aggregation center was constructed by the agency with funding from the Norway.

Sibhensana said the facility, based in Domoloto Payam in Wulu, will process tones of honey which will be transported to national and regional markets for sale.

He said the processing center provides an opportunity for the local community to sell their products and generate income to elevate their economic condition.

“The message is to the community is that they should continue to do the work that they are currently doing. Some of the products that they have already produced are encouraging,” he said.

“The fact that they are also adapting to a new technology including processing honey is impressive. So, the success of this project depends on the commitment of all the population here.”

He said local bee keepers are appealing to the national government and other partners to provide transportation means to various markets in the country to help them sell on the right time and price.

Mary Philip Abdallah, a women’s representative of Lulu and Honey Production in Wulu County said lulu and honey businesses have improved the lives of women in her area.

“We produced lulu and honey, and sell it and we get good money out of its business. With this money, we are able to send our children to school and treat sick children in the hospital,” she said.

Ms. Philip narrated that many women have ceased asking their husbands on daily basis to provide for their basic needs because, she “we are now very economically independent.”

On his part, Moses Bilal, Deputy Paramount Chief in Domoloto Payam, said that their communities have now been economically elevated and are free to utilize local resources for their own benefits.

He appreciated the UN-FAO for empowering women and youth through provision of a facility for production of lulu and honey in Wulu County.

“Lulu and honey production factory is now established in Wulu county. There is a well built store for keeping honey and Lulu products, and new borehole constructed by UNFAO and we are very happy.” Bilal said.

Hannington Sebaduka UNFAO Head of Field Office in Rumbek, said the honey processing center is a major production center and will attract many honey collectors from the area.

“We are expecting other commodities to come here and that’s why today when we launched it, we brought other commodities group and we brought cooperative societies and we hope they will be able to get market here in due time.”

“We started production of honey with bee keepers here, and leading them to Juba. When we saw the market for products here, we convince our partners, that this can be a launch for building a resilience system. So, honey already has a market. It only needs to be refined and promoted and this is what this facility is for.”