Mead guru develops honey vinegar for Zambian outfit
GRAHAMSTOWN mead guru Dr Garth Cambray is working on a plan to bring Zambian honey vinegar to market for the first time.
The venture is aimed at adding further value to Forest Fruits, a company based in Mwinilunga in Zambia’s north-western province, which is already Africa’s biggest honey exporter.
A total of 7 000 rural Zambian beekeepers provide the backbone for the company, initiated a decade ago by Zambian-Canadian eco-entrepreneur Dan Ball.
Cambray has been working with the Forest Fruits team since the outset on the development of a honey vinegar and he returned to the Eastern Cape just before Christmas from his latest visit – with some good news.
“It should be available in about three months. The first target market is Saudi Arabia and thereafter the 17 different countries the company already exports to, which range from the US to Europe and South Africa.
The hope is that the take-up in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Arab world will be substantial, linked to the Muslim emphasis on the health values of a daily dose of both honey and vinegar.
“The market demand for honey in the Muslim world is already huge. Related to this, however, there is the global problem of the rising prevalence of diabetes – and the sugar content in honey.
“With our new product, the sugar is converted via a multi-step process into vinegar, leaving only the other components of honey like antioxidants, enzymes and micro-nutrients. We’re the first to achieve this conversion.
“So Muslim diabetics looking to maintain their daily dose of honey and vinegar can now get both products in one.”
Forest Fruits annually exports 600 tons of its signature Zambezi Gold honey harvested from bark hives, as well as 30 tons of beeswax used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, organic sweets, candles and for baiting organic hives.
It also exports propolis – a natural sealant produced by bees which is used to combat dental disease. It also acts as an immune booster and heals burns and other wounds.
Cambray, who has a doctorate in biotechnology from Rhodes, won the business category of the 2007 Herald Citizen of the Year awards for his work with Makana Meadery in Grahamstown, which he established to produce the mead Iqhilika.