There are not many beekeepers in Malaysia, why?, because not many know how it works and what the potential install for them. Bees need nectar from flowers to transform this into honey. There have been many advancement whereby pre-domesticating of the honey hive are possible and keeping these artificial hive where there are flowers thus assuring continuous production of nectars and the honey by the bee colony. Portable hive are also possible to be contracted out for pollination and the value chain can be set. Our Malaysian nature is for the Beehunter to hunt for the wild honey in the rainforest. These are seasonal and the popular jungle in the northern state associate with the name of the Tualang trees and the honey is called Tualang Honey.
Malaysian honey have another challenge not recognize in the international market assume that the honey from rain forest have high water content which are the fermentation factor thus do not have a standard as the International Standard are based on other producers except from Malaysia.
The recent acquaintance with Proffessor Kamaruddin Yusoff a researcher from the University Malaya will participate and present the local Malaysian honey at the next Apimondia 2009 in France for recognition in the international market.
I on the other hand with several honey experts and business entrepeneurs will introduce beekeeping programs and contract farming of beekeeping. This ambitious initiative will be in tandem to increase the numbers of beekeepers in this region. Targeted at Malaysia and Indonesia (Sumatra in particular), training, awareness, bio technology prcocessing system will be setup.
The natural habitat of KRAU RAINFOREST (67,000 HECTARES) will be the natural resources for the beekeeping program.
We will introduce this attraction of Agro-Eco Tourism by setting up The Krau Rainforest Apitherapy Spa in Lancang. the existing Orchard with a beautiful bungalow will have the basic facilities and activities.
Like China, New Zealand and Turkey there are huge numbers of Beekeepers. Example Turkey have more than 150,000 beekeepers producing more than 80,000 ton annually of honey and is the 4th largest world producer of honey. I would like to initiate the beekeeping culture into Malaysian Farmers and reduce the importation of honey. Most important to create awareness of the Honey properties and usage of Honey. The common thing at the local market where honey were sold at MYR30-40/bottle, is disappointing as the buyer donot know how to differentiate the honey sold. Beside quality, most of sellers are not bottling the honey they claim, but sugar which is more dangerous especially for diabetes . It will be safer to buy from the hypermart the bottle honey that have approval and UMF standard.
Zaliah Ali for 5 years get to know the Puak Orang Asli , originally also known as Negritos. Chee Wong tribe, still in the Krau Rainforest comprises of 200+. Intermarriage and some convert to be Muslim by Kak Zaliah. setup this facilities, just before entering the Gandah Elephant Sanctuary. She is a lovely lady doing just charity work and helping the tribes. I will be coming back and we planned to work something more by providing assistant to Chee Wong and his family to be Beehunter and gradually be a beekeeper of Krau.
