Malaysian Official Urges Marketing of Medicinal Honey

Promote Sabah Honey as Indigenous, Health Product: Deputy CM

KOTA KINABALU, March 30 (Bernama) -- Sabah honey needs to be commercialised locally as an indigenous and healthy product, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Yahya Hussin said.

Yahya, who is also State Agriculture and Food Industry Minister, said there were obstacles in marketing the local honey abroad due to international quality standards and therefore, needed better marketing to be sold to consumers not only in Sabah, but to other places in Malaysia.

"The local honey is a valuable and important component of a healthy diet.

"It can be sold at supermarkets cheaply compare to the imported products," he said at the launch of a book 'Honey Bees of Borneo' here on Tuesday…

He said the indigenous people of Sabah had close links with honey bees for years having reared them in hollow logs.

"The people harvested the honey combs from tall forest trees and feasted on both honey and larvae as well as utilising the beeswax," he said.

He said prior to World War Two, forest products, including honey in Borneo, were much sought-after for trade.

"Even the medicinal honey from the stingless bees was in high demand," he said.

The book, published by Natural History Publication (Borneo), was written after 20 years of research by husband and wife team, Prof Nikolaus and Dr Gudrun Koeniger of the International Bee Research Institute, Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany…