About Us

Ubusi Beekeeping (Pty.) Ltd. was established in 2012 as a commercial beekeeping company, with Jaco Wolfaardt as its owner and Managing Director. Jaco has been involved in all aspects of beekeeping in South Africa for the last 30 years, since he started beekeeping in 1992.

During his 10-year tenure as a Board Member of the South African National Bee Industry Organization, Jaco represented South Africa on several occasions at the General Assembly Meetings during the World Bee Congresses in Argentina, Ukraine, Canada, and Turkey. He also served as a committee member for the Western and Southern Cape Beekeeping Associations.

Jaco has a big passion for the start-up and structure of successful beekeeping farming operations. He was involved in developing beekeeping projects for the South Africa Department of Agriculture and other African countries as a committee member of the AU-iBAR for Beekeeping Development in Africa.

Over the last few years, Ubusi Beekeeping has successfully started up beekeeping farming operations on commercial farms in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland, and recently on a nature reserve in Tanzania. The company supplies all the necessary equipment as well as the honey processing container unit, with follow-up visits for training and mentorship support.

The company is also a registered importer and exporter and can provide a full turnkey beekeeping project in any African country.

Ubusi Beekeeping is involved in all sectors of the Apiculture industry, including pollination services, honey production and processing, retailing and value-added honey and honey products, training and mentorship programs, and the supply of beekeeping equipment to the South African beekeeping industry and neighboring Southern African countries.

As the largest beekeeping equipment supplier in South Africa to large agricultural retail outlets, other beekeeping equipment retail shops, and to commercial and hobbyist beekeepers in South Africa, Ubusi Beekeeping also has its own honey and beekeeping equipment retail shops in the Southern Cape region. They supply excellent quality honey and a wide range of honey value-added products to the local public and tourist market.

Ubusi Beekeeping’s largest Apiculture business sector is the supply of pollination units for the growing demand for commercial pollination services of berries, vegetable seed, pumpkins, nuts, and deciduous fruit growers and producers. The company’s main focus is to provide good quality pollination units, and therefore they need to expand their honey bee colonies and hive numbers on a yearly basis while implementing new and modern beekeeping techniques and good beekeeping farming practices. This enables them to supply the growing pollination services market, which also makes Ubusi Beekeeping one of the leaders for pollination services to the agriculture sector in South Africa.

Ubusi Beekeeping currently has a total workforce of 38 people employed and farms with +/- 6000 production swarms in modern Langstroth hives. The company has its own wooden bee hive manufacturing plant, processing equipment manufacturing workshop, and honey processing plant to manufacture beehives and equipment and to bottle and pack their own honey under the Bee Things brand.