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Kolaka honey Improving on a long tradition
Natural delicacy: Lalido Hardin, a member of a honey harvesting group, shows off a honeycomb that has just been harvested from a forest in Uluiwoi district in East Kolaka regency, Southeast Sulawesi
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Natural delicacy: Lalido Hardin, a member of a honey harvesting group, shows off a honeycomb that has just been harvested from a forest in Uluiwoi district in East Kolaka regency, Southeast Sulawesi.
Villagers in the Kolaka area in Southeast Sulawesi province have been producing forest honey for generations by using traditional methods. They are now trying to explore the potential by offering a higher quality product that can last longer.
Kolaka honey, which comes
from the protected forest in the area, is so popular that visitors who
go to the province usually buy it as gifts for their friends and loved
ones. In Tawanga, one of the villages in Uluiwoi district, East Kolaka
regency, locals have been hunting beehives for generations, with the
entire process carried out by traditional means.
They look
forward to two harvest seasons, of which the peak takes place during the
dry period from October to December, when they can reap 10 to 40
kilograms of honeycomb. Honey farmers will see half of the peak output
during the other season that starts from April to May.
'The honey seasons starts after the end of our plantation harvest. That is why we can rely on the sales of honey to provide additional earnings,' Harman, 38, a local resident of Tawanga, told The Jakarta Post recently.
The harvesting process follows a tradition. Most of the males in Uluiwoi, including boys, enter the forest to harvest honeycombs. The reapers are called pasoema in the Kolaka language. They work in groups, each comprising five people with a leader, sopir, or tree climbers, and ordinary members.
'We first search for ripe honeycombs and then light torches that will be carried by the sopir to scare bees away when he is climbing the trees. We wait under the tree in a place that is safe from bee attacks and gather honeycombs from buckets lowered by the sopir with a rope,' Kusman, 35, a leader of a pasoema group, explained.
A group can stay in the forest for around a week, carrying various supplies and equipment for reaping and gathering honeycombs. Usually, they can produce 100 kg of honey every trip, which is later sold to collectors at Rp 30,000 (US$2.25) per kg. The income is equally shared and they can earn Rp 3 million to Rp 5 million per person during a honey season.
The sopir face the highest risks in this venture. They are capable of climbing 30-meter trees while carrying knives, ropes and torches to smoke out honeycombs and drive off bees. All of these multitasking jobs are done without protective equipment.
'We're used to bee stings and every year a number of sopir fall, suffer from broken bones and even die,' said Harman, who has been working as a sopir for three years and who said he could climb a 40-meter tree.
Tawanga, a home for 1,087 people, has 23 pasoema groups who sell their harvests to 12 honey collectors. The pasoema groups have made an agreement to avoid conflict by allowing the groups to mark their harvest trees.
'We've agreed that the trees already marked must not be disturbed. But sometimes some delinquent residents infringe others' rights,' said Kusman. In 2015, the Tawanga village head issued a rule to uphold the agreement. Pasoema found breaching the rule are subjected to a fine of Rp 500,000 per tree.
To date, Kolaka honey is mostly produced out of squeezed honeycombs that still contain bee eggs and larvae. It is stored in jerry cans, so the product not only has cleanliness and hygiene issues, but also a shorter shelf life. The remains of honeycombs are usually discarded although they can still be processed into other products.
Old and new: Kusman shows a bottle of drained honey (left) and another bottle of squeezed honey (right). Packaged in a proper bottle, the drained honey is cleaner and more hygienic than the squeezed product.
Looking at the untapped potential in Uluiwoi district, Southeast Sulawesi's AgroForestry and Forestry (AgFor) provides assistance for pasoema groups in four villages in Tawanga, Undolo, Lolambai and Sanggona. These groups hunt beehives in the 11-hectare protected forest located in the upper reaches of the Konaweha River.
AgFor introduced honey-making by means of a draining method in 2012 to the villages. They train the groups to produce honey in a sustainable and hygienic way that can bring more financial benefits for the pasoema groups. A year later, the drained method of honey production kicked off.
Drained honey is obtained by draining instead of squeezing honeycombs and sieving the golden liquid through fine nylon, so that eggs and larvae will be completely separated from the honey. During the process, pasoema members are obliged to wear gloves and masks. They also have to clean the honey containers as well.
'Although it's sieved, honey production won't be reduced and its price is higher than the squeezed honey, thus raising the income of reapers,' Southeast Sulawesi AgFor coordinator Mahrizal said.
The remains of beehives can still produce derivatives like propolis or bee gum for drugs, antioxidants, soap, cosmetics and candles. Bee eggs and larvae can also be processed into side dishes.
The groups are also taught to encourage the bees stay in their original trees by leaving part of the hives intact to enable bee colonies to return and rebuild their homes. This will ensure the continued existence of the bees in the forest because it is still very difficult to breed wild bees in the region, which belong to the species of Apis dorsata or giant honeybee.
Busy life: A part of fresh beehive still contains bees, their eggs and larvae.
Honey production in the four villages has increased during the past two years. In 2014, squeezed honey gathered by reapers amounted to 6 tons and drained honey was only a small proportion of that. A year later production doubled to 12 tons with 650 kg of drained honey.
Mepokoasa Pasoema Uluiwoi (MPU), a cooperative set up by drained-honey makers fostered by AgFor, started buying drained honey early last year.
'Actually, many pasoema wish to shift to drained honey-making but our capital to buy their production is still limited,' MPU chairman Kusman said.
MPU bought drained honey from pasoema at Rp 50,000 per kg and sieved the honey with finer fabric again. After being bottled and labeled 'MPU Honey', it is now sold in Kendari at varying prices starting from Rp 50,000 per kg.
East Kolaka regency can produce 60 tons of honey, which is still fully managed by local communities.
Almost 90 percent of the people in Uluiwoi district are farmers managing plantations with various cultivated crops like cacao, pepper and patchouli as well as horticultural plants.
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' Photos by JP/Andi Hajramurni
