India Honey Alliance (IHA) and the National Institute of Food Technology & Entrepreneurship Management (NIFTEM) collaborate to strengthen the creation of a robust honey ecosystem in India. The agreement includes identification and mutual collaboration in the areas of testing systems for honey, research and data analysis, training facilitation, and any emerging area in the related fields.

Under the long-term strategic partnership, both organizations will work together to create scientific systems, of food safety and nutrition for honey and bee-keeping products across the country. NIFTEM has recently got the tag of Institute of National Importance and will use its academic training center to train the bee-keeping and honey community and FBOs, along with assisting in the creation of a robust scientific ecosystem for all related products. 

Chindi Vasudevappa, vice chancellor, NIFTEM, “We are looking forward to collaborating with India Honey Alliance (IHA) in their vision to support and strengthen the honey ecosystem. Together with IHA, we aim to establish and set up industry benchmarks for the quality, authenticity, and safety of Indian honey and work towards creating robust, affordable, and accessible technology for the honey industry. Together, we look forward to awareness activities which will promote knowledge and information dissemination & training of stakeholders.” 

Additionally, the International Centre of Excellence in Food Safety & Quality at NIFTEM would function as a National Reference Laboratory of IHA in the chosen area of competence for honey authenticity, method development, proficiency testing, and much more. NIFTEM will also function as the academic partner of IHA for developing the content and conducting the training, for all areas of the honey value chain, through a joint certification program.

Speaking on the occasion, Deepak Jolly, general secretary, IHA, said, “The honey industry in India has a huge potential to grow. However, we have not been able to take full advantage of the available opportunities in the sector, and there is a long way to go when organizing the fragmented industry. There are several challenges at the ground level, which include training and capacity framework, understanding & rollout of appropriate testing methodology, quality, authenticity, and much more. Our partnership with NIFTEM is a step forward in addressing many such issues. We hope this collaboration will be highly fruitful and result in a win-win for IHA and NIFTEM.”

The NIFTEM facilities would be utilized by IHA as the Centre for Training of Trainers (ToT) in various hands-on training courses, food analysts, and other laboratory personnel and as a training partner for various courses and modules as mutually agreed. One of the most important goals of this partnership is to develop an adequate number of trained and certified honey & bee-keeping professionals for the country's honey industry. Further, IHA will also assist NIFTEM in setting up the bee-keeping park in NIFTEM through the utilization of available resources.