Pulwama, Nov 14: A youth in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district has successfully transformed his beekeeping hobby into entrepreneurship thereby launching his own brand of honey — Al-NAHL Honey.
Nazim Nazir, 20, a resident of Samboora village of Saffron Tehsil of Pulwama district was a honeybee penchant since his childhood days and finally evolved as a professional beekeeper in May, 2017.
“Initially, I installed two beehives at my home for extracting pure honey as I was not satisfied with the quality of the honey available in market,” says Nazir. “I would extract at least 16 kg of honey from two hives and distribute it among my neighbors and relatives for free of cost.”
“My experience of extracting pure honey at home made me excited to produce more pure honey which made me to borrow ten more beehives. The quantity of the honey extracted from these beehives amounted nearly one quintal. I was provided with ten more beehives by the Khadi and Village Industries Centre, Pampore (KVIC) and the Centre also provided me thirteen-days training for better management of the beehives,” says the young entrepreneur.
Nazir says that in April, 2018 he purchased another hundred beehives as he saw the demand for honey increasing. “With my hard work and proper management of the beehives, I was successful in extracting more than one ton of honey from the beehives and began packing the honey bottles on my own.”
“After assessing the price of top brand honey in the markets, I fixed the rate of my honey brand comparatively less than the other brands,” says Nazir.
The young beekeeper says that his brand guarantees money back in case the honey is proved to be impure. Nazir has hired a beekeeping expert from Bihar who manages the beehives. “I export and sell honey in other states like Uttar Pradesh, Delhi through online websites like Paytm and others and now I am planning to sell it through Amazon,” he says.
Nazir’s plan is to add five hundred more beehives to his honey business and plans to set up his own bottle manufacturing unit as well. “I am content with what I get to earn annually from this business, above all four persons are also earning from it,” says the young entrepreneur.
