Inside the government's lone honey refinery plant

The whirring sound from the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation's (BSCIC) lone honey refinery plant could be heard from the Dhaka-Aricha Highway. Located in Dhamrai, the plant premises is full of used chemical containers filled with honey.  

Hossain Mohammad Iqbal Majumder, a businessman, was talking to one of the BSCIC employees. He imports black honey from Africa and brings it to the plant before marketing it. 

Initially, he would bring one tonne of honey for refining at the plant. With time, the amount increased. 

"Every month, we sell 1 to 1.5 tonnes of honey," he said, adding, "Sometimes I bring three tonnes and sometimes five tonnes to the plant for refinement."

Majumder said that every year, he imports 10-15 tonnes of honey from an African country he did not want to name.

His brand of honey is called 'Karkuna Organic Honey'. He sells 400 grams at Tk750.

BSCIC's honey refinery plant began its operations in September 2019. It has opened a new window for domestic as well as raw honey importers to process their products for better quality. 

Honey cultivators and traders come here all throughout the year. However, during the peak season of winter, the inflow of honey increases dramatically. 

In 2022-2023 fiscal year, Bangladesh produced 7,328.25 tonnes of honey both in the private and the public sector, according to BSCIC's annual report 

The annual demand of honey, however, stands at more than 30,000 tonnes every year. Dabur, Bee Sweets, Anna's and other foreign companies meet most of the demand, according to industry insiders.

BSCIC's Dhaka District's Promotion Officer Amiyo Kumar Sana, who is also in charge of the honey refinery plant, said that annually they can process more or less 210 tonnes of honey. 

Many honey cultivators and traders process their products in privately owned processing plants. Nearly all of these plants are made with Chinese equipment.  

Why is processing required?

The officials of the plant said that 90 percent of all honey cultivated in Bangladesh is from mustard flowers and the honey crystalises within a year because it contains a high level of moisture. 

Five percent comes from lychee and the remaining five percent include black cumin, Indian jujube and other flowering plants. 

When the moisture in honey is reduced, its shelf life increases by many more years. 

The processing at the plant does not only reduce moisture, during the process, it also kills various germs as well as other undesirable materials or debris from the honey.

The processing fee for one kilogram of honey is Tk15. The BSCIC plant also has the facility of bottling the honey before selling it in the market.

Clad in a white apron, the plant's technician Abdul Jabber Porag, was busy overseeing the refinement process. 

He said that the amount of honey varies on different days. Some days, five to seven tonnes of honey come for refinement and some days, there is not a drop. 

Porag also said that on average, the plant can process around 700 kilograms of honey per day. However, the amount of honey requiring processing is much higher than the capacity, as a result of which, honey cultivators and traders have to wait for more than 10 days. They process the honey on a 'first come, first serve' basis.

More than 100 honey cultivators and honey traders are currently coming to the honey refinery plant to process honey, on a regular basis. Most of them are traders who directly buy raw honey from cultivators. 

"Small honey cultivators cannot make a profit with a small amount of honey," said Porag. "They need BSTI approval and manpower, which is not feasible for a small cultivator."

Porag pointed out that the percentage of moisture should be between 18 and 20. Usually, raw honey contains 21 to 25 percent of moisture. He added that honey should always be kept in a glass jar so the quality remains good. 

Happy honey traders

Sundarban Bee and Honey Farm Limited sells honey under the brand name Bee Honey. On average, they process 12 tonnes of honey from the BSCIC's honey processing plant. 

Sheikh Nurul Huda, the founder and managing director of the company, said that his company has processed around two tonnes of honey from the BSCIC's honey refinery facility in January this year.

"We have a plan to process around 10 more tonnes of honey in the coming months," he said, adding, "our company has a market share of 12 tonnes of honey."

Businessmen said that the market size for honey is rapidly growing, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, as people have become more aware about honey's health benefits.

"I am very happy that we can sell our product directly after processing it," said Huda. He has a sales centre in Karwan Bazar and also sells the honey online. His company does all the packaging in the Dhamrai BSCIC Industrial Estate.

Another businessman Shafique Shariful Islam sells honey under the brand name 'Pure Modhu Manikganj'. He has been processing honey since 2020 at the plant, one year after the plant started operations.

He used to sell raw honey in the past, but after the opening of the BSCIC's honey processing plant he has been processing honey from here.

"If we process the honey, it remains in a good condition for a long time," said Shafique. Every month, he processes half a tonne of honey at the plant.

"The honey processing plant is a blessing for me, because my home is in Manikganj and the communication system is good," he said. 

He said there are many honey processing machines in the country but he doubts the quality of the processing. On the other hand, BSCIC's plant is far better, he opined.

He, however, mentioned that there is a problem with the plant as it sometimes remains shut because of technical problems. 

"I think they should install another plant because sometimes, a huge amount of honey comes for processing," he said. "Last month, the plant was shut for around 10 days because of technical problems. And it was the peak season."

Many big companies including ACME Laboratories Ltd, one of the top-tier pharmaceutical companies in the country, also process their honey from this plant, according to officials at the plant.    

Used chemical containers could pose a problem

The cultivators and traders carry the honey in used chemical containers, which might be a health hazard. Only a few traders use food grade containers. 

Bee Honey's owner Sheikh Nurul Huda said that the cultivators involved in the honey business are poor, so they cannot buy expensive food grade containers. But they wash the containers before using them, although he does not believe it makes them any safer. 

He claimed that he bought around 100 Gazi tanks to carry the refined or processed honey.

He said that the government, or rather BSCIC, will have to come forward to provide financial assistance to the traders so they can use food grade containers.   

BSCIC director (planning and research) Ahsan Kabir claimed that they did not know that people use old chemical containers for carrying honey.

However, he agrees that these types of second-hand chemical containers may pose a health hazard. He said if someone wants to use these, they will have to make sure that these do not have any smell and they will have to be properly washed and tested.

"We discourage [the traders] to carry honey in used chemical containers," said Ahsan Kabir. 

BSCIC wants to become like Dabur

Ahsan Kabir has devised a new plan, with an estimated budget of Tk10 crore, including setting up a cutting-edge honey refinery plant to replace the existing one, thus boosting honey cultivation and taking BSCIC's own honey brand 'BSCIC Honey' to the international market, much like the Indian brand Dabur. 

"We are saying BSCIC's branded honey is pure honey, but we have not yet exported it," said Ahsan Kabir, adding, "but you will find our honey in different places across the country."

His plan is to increase private honey production along with BSCIC's own honey production.

"The quality of Dabur's honey and our honey differs because of the processing system. If we can upgrade our processing system and make high-quality honey in attractive bottles like Dabur, we will be able to take our honey to the international market." 

He said that they are drafting a project proposal and if approved, they will start implementation. The upgrade will mean they will have to install a brand-new processing plant. 

However, the BSCIC director said that they have no idea about the annual demand or market size of honey in the country. They will take steps to conduct a survey to get an idea.