Making the Economy Buzz

Ali Rama is a 50-year-old beekeeper from the Vushtri Municipality in northern Kosovo. While Ali has enjoyed relative success in his honey production and sales for the last 10 years, he was looking to expand his business into new opportunities.

Mercy Corps supported Ali to implement quality standards for organic honey production and — this year, for the first time in Kosovo — he has begun to produce organic honey. Conventional honey is sold for eight euros a kilogram, and after Mercy Corps’ trainings in the methodology of organic honey production, he now sells for 10 euros.

Mercy Corps supported Ali to identify gaps in the marketplace and, together, they settled on production of organic honey as a potential niche for Ali’s honey business to increase its sales. He has begun to sell honey in Kosovo and is exploring the lucrative market for exporting in the near future.

“For me as a producer of honey, production of organic honey was a new experience,” he said. “Mercy Corps supported me at every stage of development of organic honey.”

With Mercy Corps’ support and shifting his operations to organic honey, Ali has increased his production capacities from a single beehive producing about 30 kilograms of honey, to eight beehives that yield a total of 240 kilograms of organic honey. Compared to previous years, he has increased the value of his production by roughly 20 percent and increased his income by 25 percent, from 1,200 euros to 2,400.

With the better market prices that organic honey commands, the increase in Ali's income this year made his life much easier by covering expenses for the education of his five children. Mercy Corps supported Ali for two years with capacity building and linkages with markets.

Through the Kosovo Value Chain Revitalization program, we've supported Ali and 58 other beekeepers with technical trainings to improve their production and business capacity, as well as contribute towards sustainable economic development of their businesses and the overall Kosovo economy.