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.