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Inside Capital Partners has invested in Wuchi Wami, a Zambian producer of single-origin Miombo honey. However, the exact size of the investment was not disclosed.
Wuchi Wami buys organic honey from rural beekeepers organised in co-operatives. It processes and packs the honey, then sells it to retail shops and food manufacturers in Zambia and across Southern Africa.
“I believe that we are enabling our business and our farmers to be agents of change. This partnership gives us the capital and the discipline to process more of what our outgrower beekeepers produce, to reach more shelves in the region, and to keep paying a fair price at the farm gate.” Harry Malichi, Founder and Managing Director of Wuchi Wami.
Most honey in Zambia never reaches the formal market. Government figures put the annual harvest at about 14,200 tonnes, with roughly 90% traded informally. That honey is ungraded, unbranded, and untraceable. Beekeepers earn little from it. The main problem is not honey supply but a lack of processing capacity, working capital and access to buyers.
Founded in 2018, Wuchi Wami is a wholly Zambian-owned and led company. It works with more than 6,000 smallholder beekeepers in North-Western Province and has placed over 19,000 top-bar hives.
It runs aggregation centres across four rural zones. The company processes and packs honey for retail, private-label and bulk customers in Zambia and the wider region.
The company’s initiative aims to create sustainable livelihoods through an outgrower scheme that supports over 2,500 small-scale farmers.
It focuses on using modern softwood beehives, which are easier to manage and require less labour, allowing greater participation from women and youth in beekeeping.
The program also emphasises honey bee health research while providing practical training and resources to the farmers. Environmentally, it seeks to preserve forests by replacing traditional beekeeping practices, which involved cutting down miombo trees for hives and charcoal.
With 2,500 farmers now using modern beehives, this effort has helped save more than 125,000 trees. Economically, the program has generated income for these farmers, enhancing their livelihoods in 2022.
Wuchi Wami will use the funds to expand its processing and packing capacity. It will also grow its retail brand and private-label business in the region, and widen the base of smallholder beekeepers it buys from.
“Wuchi Wami has built a moat that is hard to copy – the trust of thousands of rural beekeepers, and a supply chain that runs from the hive to the shelf. Our conviction is that formalising rural value chains is one of the most direct ways to raise incomes in Southern Africa. We look forward to supporting the team as they add capacity and reach more customers in the region,” Szymon Starosta, Investment Manager at Inside.
Inside is a private equity manager based in Mauritius that invests in small and medium-sized businesses in Southeast Africa. They believe supporting local businesses can create positive change and steady growth.
Their efforts aim to ensure fair earnings for rural households, establish a more organised honey supply chain, and encourage communities to protect the Miombo woodland that supports their beehives.
