Belet Weyne, 20 December 2022 – It is 6:00 a.m. and Mohamed Dhicis is up and ready for work. Dressed in a thick, white cotton canvas suit, which covers his entire body, he walks into the apiary housing tens of thousands of bees.
When he reaches the beehives, he kneels and remains in place, contemplating the swirling activity before him. After a few minutes, using a metal tool, the 19-year-old opens the top part of the first box. He delicately pulls out the honey-soaked net within, almost as if he were opening a box of chocolates. Immediately, the atmosphere is filled with a buzzing sound, and thousands of bees fly out and around the box. Some of them, as if stuck with glue, stay on the net, making honey.
This honey is what sustains the livelihoods of Mr. Dhicis and the four other beekeepers that work for him at the Dhicis Production Company, which he founded with the support and guidance of Somalia’s Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MoCI) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
