In Ethiopia, Tigray honey tries to regain its colors

In his stone house perched on a hill in northern Ethiopia, Amanuel Hiluf dons a full-body suit, adjusts the veil and gloves: “you have to hurry because it's starting to “It's hot and the bees are going to be “nervous,” says the beekeeper.

In Hawidela, a village about an hour from Mekele, the capital of Tigray, Amanuel Hiluf has about forty beehives in his garden, from which clouds of bees escape.

For nearly twenty years, he has been producing white honey, a creamy and prized variety that has made this northern region of Ethiopia famous.

This 42-year-old man remembers a time when he produced it “in abundance”.

But that was before the Tigray war, which saw federal forces and rebels clash between November 2020 and November 2022.

When the fighting gets closer from his house, Amanuel Hiluf had to flee with his wife and children.

“In the region, there was significant damage,” he recalls, pointing to a hill from where he claims shells were fired.

When he returned a few months later, all his hives had been decimated, destroying his livelihood.

Before the war, he could produce about 600 kilos of white honey each year and earn some 900,000 birrs (about 7,000 euros at the current rate), a considerable sum in a country where nearly 36% of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

Beekeeper Amanuel Hiluf inspects his hives in Hawidela, near Mekele, capital of Tigray, on October 10, 2024 in Ethiopia © AFP – Michele Spatari

When he resumed production, Amanuel Hiluf was earning only 5% of this sum. His harvest is gradually increasing, however, and he is now able to produce 100 kilos.

A situation that is far from isolated across the region ravaged by conflict.

“According to our estimates, between 40% and 60% of bee colonies have been destroyed,” says Goshu Welealeabzgi, a beekeeping specialist for the Tigray authorities' Bureau of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Before the conflict, he estimates that there were 500,000 colonies, and that 200,000 people depended directly on beekeeping, in a region with about 6 million inhabitants.

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– Biodiversity –

Bees have also been victims of the environmental consequences of the conflict.

Beekeeper Amanuel Hiluf cuts a honeycomb at his home in Hawidela, near Mekele, capital of Tigray, on October 10, 2024 in Ethiopia © AFP – Michele Spatari

The inhabitants of the region, without any income, cut down many trees, including acacias that covered the hills, to sell them or for heating, which had an impact on biodiversity.

“There were far fewer flowers, and (honey) production decreased,” says Amanuel Hiluf.

“The guns have fallen silent, but there is still misery,” he says next to his hives of Apis mellifera monticola bees.

This species, which is resistant to altitude – Mekele being perched at more than 2,200 meters – is “the most productive”, underlines Goshu Welealeabzgi.

A customer buys honey at Birhanu Araya's shop in Mekele, capital of Tigray, on October 8, 2024 in Ethiopia © AFP – Michele Spatari

Ethiopia, an East African country of about 120 million people, is the largest producer of honey in the continent.

And nectar is important in Ethiopian culture, with yellow honey being used in particular to produce tej, a very popular local mead.

Amanuel Hiluf regularly goes to sell his honey to Birhanu Araya, a trader who runs a small shop in a market in Mekele where dozens of cans containing the precious nectar are piled up.

“There is a shortage of bees at the moment, we lost a lot of them because of the war and the drought” last year, complains the 61-year-old man, who has been running his business for 25 years.

Birhanu Araya serves honey to customers in his shop in Mekele, capital of Tigray, on October 8, 2024 in Ethiopia © AFP – Michele Spatari

As a result, production is “low and prices are soaring.”

But for Goshu Welealeabzgi, if “resources are allocated accordingly and communities are involved,” he believes that production can return to pre-war levels “within five years.” “We have to look to the future,” he concludes.

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