Inside Capital Partners ("Inside") is pleased to announce its investment in Wuchi Wami Limited, a Zambian producer of single-origin Miombo honey. Wuchi Wami procures organic honey from rural beekeepers that are organized in co-operatives, processes and packs the honey, and sells it to retail shops and food manufacturers in Zambia and across Southern Africa.
In Zambia, most honey never reaches a formal market. Government figures put the annual harvest at about 14,200 tonnes, of which roughly nine tenths is traded informally - ungraded, unbranded and untraceable. Beekeepers are paid little for it. The constraint is not the supply of honey. It is processing capacity, working capital and access to buyers.
This partnership will support Wuchi Wami's plan to expand its processing and packing capacity, grow its retail brand and private-label business in the region, and widen the base of smallholder beekeepers it buys from.
This investment reflects Inside's conviction that backing locally anchored businesses addressing critical gaps in African economies can generate both strong impact and sustainable growth - in this case by ensuring fair farm-gate earnings for rural households, formalising a supply chain that is largely informal today, and giving communities a commercial reason to protect the Miombo woodland their hives depend on.
Szymon Starosta, Investment Manager at Inside, commented: "Wuchi Wami has built a moat that is hard to copy - the trust of thousands of rural beekeepers, and a supply chain that runs from the hive to the shelf. Our conviction is that formalising rural value chains is one of the most direct ways to raise incomes in Southern Africa. We look forward to supporting the team as they add capacity and reach more customers in the region."
Harry Malichi, Founder and Managing Director of Wuchi Wami, added: "I believe that we are enabling our business and our farmers to be agents of change. This partnership gives us the capital and the discipline to process more of what our outgrower beekeepers produce, to reach more shelves in the region, and to keep paying a fair price at the farm gate."
About Inside Capital Partners
We are an independent private equity manager investing in high-potential SMEs in Southeast Africa, combining deep local knowledge, a disciplined investment approach, and an extensive operational network to drive sustainable value creation.
Learn more: www.insidecapital.net
About Wuchi Wami 🐝 🐝 🐝
Founded in 2018, Wuchi Wami is a wholly Zambian owned and led honey producer working with more than 6,000 smallholder beekeepers in North-Western Province. It has deployed over 19,000 top-bar hives, runs aggregation centres across four rural zones, and processes and packs honey for retail, private-label and bulk customers in Zambia and the wider region.
Learn more: https://wuchiwami.com