Alpine Bees MORE INNOVATIVE THANKS TO EU CHALLENGE FUND

Rinaldo Gjolaj, Team Member of the Family Owned Business – Alpine Bees, is another winner of Swedish EU Challenge Fund.

He shares with TRAILBLAZING MAGAZINE how he was involved in the business of bees and how crucial was the moment Alpine Bees was chosen one of the beneficiaries of the EU Challenge Fund.

Gjolaj says that Alpine Bees is now dealing with the necessary certification and licensing procedures to export and increase capacity to respond to the European market. Due to the support of EU Challenge Fund, he said, “The innovation that we managed to introduce into some of the processes and products, differentiates us from many other beekeepers and helped us improve the performance and health of bee families.”

FULL INTERVIEW BELOW:

What did you motivate to go into the business of bees and honey and promoting them through your startup?

A family and provincial tradition was the first initiator for me to deal with bees

and honey, and turn it into a business where I make money. My relatives and

family have kept bees for generations, but what pushed me to head into this business was after my dad bought 2 bees in 2016 and got 70 kg of honey.

Please can you share with us some major facts about your business. How would you define the Alpine Bee honey and how much honey do you produce yearly? Do you export it?

Alpine Bees has 2 bee parks, in Malësi e Madhe and in Dukagjin. We get some types

of honey, and other bee products. Multiflower, chestnut, sage or thyme honey takes its name from the flowers in which the bee takes the nectar which then turns it into honey. Royal Jelly is one of the products with the most extraordinary health values. Pollen and “Royal Jelly is one of the propolis are other basic products produced by bees with great health products and nutritional values. with the most extraordinary Bee Venom is the most extraordinary and health values” expensive product that bees produce. The value goes up to $ 20,000 / kg, obviously extracted in limited quantities and used in elite cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Australian scientists have recently proven that bee venom kills aggressive breast cancer cells. Due to some weather conditions and not only the amount of honey taken is not very large but it is very high quality. We are now dealing with the necessary certification and licensing procedures to export and increase capacity to respond to the European market.

Please how should the consumers recognize a pure honey, which is not adulterated?

To be 100% safe, only laboratory tests can help but the consumers, before buying honey, should have in mind two things: natural honey should have a lot of specific aroma and taste that varies depending on the type of honey. Consumers should be careful when they want to buy bee products. They should be in glass containers and should have labels that explain the product, the business and the place where it was produced. To be even more secure on the label, there should be a contact number or social networks where the consumer can look at the processes of extracting products and daily work with them.

How crucial was the EU Challenge Fund support in your startups development?

We had a difficult season due to both

weather and pandemic conditions and the support of EU Challenge Fund was really very good. It helps the business to maintain the performance and more of other capacities and quality. The innovation that we managed to introduce into some of the processes and products, differentiates from many other beekeepers and helped us improve the performance and health of bee families.

Describe your most exciting entrepreneurial moment.

Undoubtedly the most emotional moment was when Alpine Bees was chosen the winner of the Challenge Fund, where the business was praised for what it had done and for its vision for the future. That was really exciting.