July 2011: Maria Odido highlights her company growth thanks to the EMRC-Rabobank Project Incubator Award

EMRC spoke to Maria Odido, Managing Director of Bee Natural Products and 2010 Project Incubator Award Winner, to understand what winning an award has done to her business and what her future business objectives and projections are.

EMRC: It has been 2 years since you won the award: tell us what you have achieved in these two years. How has it changed it your business?

Maria Odido: In the last 2 years since we won the award, we have been able to :

Raise our raw material purchase from 11 tons in 2010 to 80 tons this year.
We have sent two of our staff to Kenya for training in Queen rearing and colony multiplication. This will assist us in raising queens and increasing colonies especially during the swarming season. We will then be able to sell these colonies to our beekeepers with their hives, so that they buy colonies instead of empty hives. This reduces the amount of time that they wait for swarms to colonize and the end result is in quicker production increase.
We are now introducing new products like chunk honey for an upper class market, propolis for the alternative health industry and we are rebranding our company
We have also joined up with an organisation called Kilimo Trust and SNV to re-organise our producers and improve our field activities.

EMRC: What would you tell your fellow country people about the importance of the Project Incubator Award?

MO: I would say that the most important aspect of the Project Incubator Award is that it exposes a company and its business especially SMEs to an audience that one would not usually be exposed to. That exposure brings with it partnerships that under normal business circles would take a business years to find and discuss anything with. It also shows you where you are strong and where your weaknesses lie. Because of the encouragement you receive, it builds your confidence to grow and experiment. That cannot be too bad for a company. Most SMEs are afraid to experiment, due to cost and lack of confidence. The Project Incubator Award, grants you both these things.

EMRC: What are your projections for the next 2 years?

MO: Our projections are:

To ensure that our new brand gets to be as well known as the initial brand. This will not be too difficult as the new brand is far superior.
To ensure that we increase our groups to 133 groups of 15 individuals per groups who are properly equipped to produce our expected projection of 130tons next year.
To increase our market share in the region so that we become the best known table honey.
That our new products will find market both regionally and in the international market as they are high value products. To achieve this last objective, we have to ensure that our packaging also meets international standard expectations.