Can Egypt sweeten deal for small beekeepers?
Egypt organizes its first beekeepers festival, but small producers wonder whether their presence will make a buzz.
CAIRO — Can Egyptians — huge consumers of saturated sugar — switch to honey? The organizers of Cairo’s first honey festival next week certainly hope so.
“Egyptians are major consumers of sugar, especially in jams and halva, [which are saturated sugar],” Mahmoud Hassan, chairman of MEDmart, which organizes the festival, told Al-Monitor. “We want to change that culture and get them to use honey — which is a healthier alternative — as one of the main ingredients at the Egyptian table. The festival will feature chefs cooking dishes with honey as a substitute for sugar.”
The Egypt Honey Festival, set to take place Oct. 16 at the Merryland Park in Cairo’s Heliopolis, aims to combine entertainment with business. The public program will have workshops with chefs, exhibitions and children’s events, and aims to present the health and nutritional benefits of honey as a natural immunity booster.
According to the festival’s website, the consumption of honey in Egypt and the Arab world in general does not exceed 100 grams annually, unlike European citizens who consume more than 2 kilograms annually.
