Hundreds expected as Gulu City prepares to host honey festival

GULU, May 7, 2026 — Gulu City is preparing to host its first-ever honey festival, expected to attract more than 200 beekeepers from the Acholi and Lango sub-regions.

Robert Okodia, Chairperson of the festival’s organising committee, said the event, scheduled for May 16, will be held at Kaunda Grounds under the theme: “Sweet Harmony: Celebrating Bees and Nature.”

Okodia said the festival aims to celebrate bees and highlight their importance to the environment.

“We want to celebrate bees and their impact on the environment, the conservation of biodiversity, and their role as agents of pollination,” Okodia said.

He added that the event will create market linkages between beekeepers, actors in the honey value chain and consumers.

“We will have beekeepers from cooperatives at the festival. They will engage with farmers about their products and what they are doing. Farmers interested in starting apiculture will also receive training on how to venture into the enterprise,” he said.

The honey festival comes at a time when honey production in Gulu District has declined, largely due to environmental degradation, particularly the widespread cutting down of trees for charcoal production.

Statistics from the Gulu District Entomology Department show that honey production fell to 58,360 tonnes in 2023/2024, down from 72,740 tonnes recorded between 2019 and 2020.

Alfonse Acaye, the Gulu District Entomology Officer, recently advised beekeepers to improve bee forage by planting flowering plants that bloom at different times of the year to ensure a steady food supply for bees.

Uganda is a rapidly growing honey producer, with annual production estimated to reach about 210,000 metric tonnes by 2026, up from 4,000 tonnes in 2023. The growth has been driven by more than 1.2 million, largely small-scale, beekeepers. Northern Uganda remains one of the country’s key production areas, with major harvesting seasons running from March to June and from August to October.

https://thecooperator.news/honey-production-drops-in-gulu-due-to-human-activities/

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