Fresh honey for PNG produced locally in Goroka

After recovering from a deadly bomb blast in the Philippines, Bena man Kelly Inae returned home to pursue his dreams – to produce honey for sale.

Mr Inae, 50, is now producing about 700kg of high quality honey every month for buyers in Goroka, Kundiawa, Port Moresby, and Alatou from his residence in Lipiga (Kafana) on the southwestern fringes of town.

His desire is to establish a modern honey processing factory to supply honey to all major stores and institutions in the country with his “Mountain Honey”.
When Kelly was a grade one student at Siokie Primary School in 1976 an American missionary, Fred Peipman, introduced him to honey for the first time.
After school he would stagger on to Rev Peipman’s residence at Napamogena and helped out by looking after the missionary’s beehives.
Kelly continued to the then Goroka Demonstration High School and has worked with some private firms.

After several years with private firms he signed up with MV Doulos, a ship dedicated to spreading the word of God across the globe.
The Bena man has sailed to over 20 countries including Vietnam, Russia, Korea, India, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Indonesia.
“We called into the port city of Zamboanga in the Philippines in August 1991.
“About 200 metres away from the shoreline we were attending a Christian rally when Muslim extremists detonated the deadly device (a home-made bomb).
“I was badly injured in the explosion but the good Lord spared my life,” he told the Post-Courier in an exclusive interview.

Mr Inae is still carrying visible scars on his legs and abdomen.
In 2003 he returned home and bought a box of beehives from a local bee farmer in his village.
“I sold the honey and bought 10 more boxes (beehives) within two years.”
In 2006, Mr Inae moved to Goroka and acquired a piece of land from traditional (Kafana) landowners to continue honey production.
He increased his beehives to 45 (boxes) and extracted the honey for sale to the public and to stores.
He hired seven workers to help him with the workload apart from his “helpful spouse” Phanta Inae.

Kelly is also providing training on beekeeping to farmers as well as prospective farmers in Eastern Highlands, Chimbu, Jiwaka and Western Highlands provinces.
He has accumulated vast knowledge on beekeeping and production as he collected many book on this subject from the countries he visit while working on MV Doulos.
“Currently I have about 300 bee farmers in the Highlands who affiliated to me by selling their harvest to me for K14 per kilogram,” he said.

“As am giving this interview I have 7,000 kilogram of honey in my yard.”
He registered his company with the Investment Promoy Authority (IPA) as Helping Hand Honey and his product is labeled as “Mountain Honey.”

Those wishing to know more about Kelly and his honey business may call him on 71258799 or email: helpinghandhoney@gmail.com 

Source: Post courier newspaper.