APIMONDIA President For Africa Hailes Tanzania To Scoop A Slot Of Hosting The 50th Congress To Be Staged In Arusha City

 

By Valentine Oforo, Singida

THE President of the Regional Commission for the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations (APIMONDIA) for Africa, David Mukomana has hailed the government of Tanzania for the successful bid submitted and won to host the 50th Apimondia 2027 Congress.

 

Mukomana who jetted into the country for a special purpose to congratulate the country for wining a vital slot to host the 50th edition of the global apiculture summit, expressed deep appreciation over the successful manner to which President Samia Suluhu Hassan has opened the country’s gates through the Tanzania Royal Tour whose theme had nothing to do with beekeeping but promoting Tanzania as a tourist destination.

Also, he commended the professional collaborative efforts by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and Tanzania Forest Services (TFS) and the PMM Group of companies in promoting the Tanzania beekeeping sector, as well as enabling the apiculture Golden Jubilee to take shape in Tanzania.

Apimondia, the International Federation of Beekeepers Associations, is the global organisation whose mandate is to promote beekeeping and anything and everything to do with bees, an organisation that has existed in its current form since 1895.

Its main objective is to facilitate the exchange of information and discussions where beekeepers, scientists, honey-traders, agents for development, technicians and legislators meet to listen, discuss and learn from each other

 “It was a great pleasure to experience the outpouring of support not only from other African delegates but from stakeholders from other continents wishing to see Tanzania getting the chance to host the global beekeeping event,” he expressed when giving a special press conference in Singida Region over the weekend.

The eagerly –awaited event, the 50th Apimondia 2027 Congress, will take shape in the City of Arusha, expecting to bring into the country high-profile stakeholders in the beekeeping value chain from across the world.

 

“As the Apimondia Regional Commission for Africa President, I would like to congratulate the Government of Tanzania, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and the Tanzania Forest Services (TFS) for the successful bid submitted and won to host the 50th Apimondia 2027 Congress,” he said.

Through hosting the event, he observed that Tanzania will set a congress record that will take a long time to break and the African continent will be recognised for what it is and what it has.

“ The event will play key role to help African honeys and hive products will be given a fair rating based on its intrinsic qualities, not its geographic origin, but also, African bees and the beekeeping systems will be given the recognition,” he added.

He said it was prudent for the stakeholders in Tanzania and at the continental level to appreciate the importance and significance of Tanzania winning the bid to host the 50th Apimondia Congress.

 

“The efforts done by the Government of Tanzania is duly and must fully recognised, as well as the work done by TFS must be celebrated. Every stakeholder, be it, public, private or quasi-government, ought to come on board to support this great congress for the benefit of communities, Tanzania and the entire continent as a whole,”

“We join the Golden Jubilee Congress celebration in our homeland an honour bestowed on Tanzania and by default Africa, an event that will be remembered by this generation and generations to come,”

To the ordinary beekeepers and other stakeholders, according to him, having the congress coming to Arusha means so much compared to the efforts and challenges around attending the congress outside Tanzania and Africa. 

 

“It is for this reason that the Regional Commission for Africa would like to comment the tremendous work done by government and TFS in bringing the global apiculture congress to Tanzania, thus laying a foundation for massive business opportunities for entrepreneurs, both current and prospective, to tap into the above opportunities,” Mukomana expounded.

The history of Tanzania at the global level started in 1986 when Tanzania became a member of Apimondia and subsequently hosting of the 1st Apimondia Symposium on African Beekeeping in November 2014 in Arusha, an event that brought massive visibility of the importance of beekeeping to the economy of Tanzania.

And in July 2022, Tanzania, through the Tanzania Forest Services formally communicated to the Regional Commission of the intention to bid to host the 50th Apimondia Congress.

Necessary lobbying was done that resulted in Tanzania formally announcing during the Africa Round Table in Istanbul, Turkey that Tanzania was ready to host the Congress in 2027 on behalf of the African continent resulting in the preparation of the bid response document.

Due to the high-profile nature of the 50th Apimondia Congress as a milestone congress, there was a special requirement for the bidders to have a venue with the capacity to host at least 4000 people during the Official Opening and Closing Ceremonies, a condition that created a huge challenge for Tanzania given the fact that current conference facilities can only hold up to 1500 delegates per seating.

“This condition left Tanzania with two options, to submit the bid with temporary structures to augment the existing infrastructure at the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC)  and connect other halls with video link for the Opening Ceremony,”

“Propose the Mount Kilimanjaro International Convention Centre, a venue that was on paper. The Regional Commission option was to consider urgent discussion between TFS and the parent ministry to consider the bid being regional with the proposed venue of JKICC in Nairobi, just to fulfil the venue capacity requirement,”he infomed.

He further communicated that the issue of the venue saw the Apimondia Executive Council engaging in robust discussions to explore the possible scenarios and or challenges of accepting the Tanzanian bid without a physically existing venue resulting in a special case where the bid was accepted with a caveat that the bid is accepted on condition the MKICC will be constructed and completed for 2nd Apimondia inspection by 31 July 2025, failure to meet the condition will result in the congress being taken to another venue.

 

The other bidders for the 50th Apimondia Congress were China, United Arab Emirates (Dubai)  and Togo.

“Therefore, the Regional Commission wishes to bring to the attention of the private sector to appreciate the work done by government and complement these efforts by taking a direct role in working towards the successful hosting of the Apimondia Golden Jubilee,” he insisted.