For 25 years, Kaizirege Camara has kept bees and built a business around the hive. Today he exports Tanzanian honey, rice, flour, and beans to Britain — and credits AGCOT for connecting him with the producers who make it possible.

By Kilimokwanza.org News Desk  |  April 2026  | 

Kaizirege Camara is known in the Agro SFO network in Tanzania by a respectful nickname: Mzee wa Nyuki. The Elder of Bees. He has been working with bees for more than 25 years — long enough to understand not just honey production, but the intricate role that bees play in the wider agricultural system, particularly through pollination services for fruit and vegetable crops.

When Kaizirege introduced himself to the network in April 2026, he said something that stood out. Alongside the expected mention of beekeeping, he described an export business — , fremu.co.uk — through which he sells Tanzanian products to customers in the United Kingdom. The product range is striking in its breadth: honey, yes, but also rice, flour (sembe and dona), beans, and groundnuts.

In a single introduction, Kaizirege described something that many Tanzania agricultural sector watchers talk about in theory but rarely see in practice: a Tanzanian entrepreneur who has built a direct-to-consumer export channel into a premium Western market, dealing in multiple commodity categories, operating from the diaspora.

“Tunashukuru sana AGCOT kwa kutuunganisha na wazalishaji ambao wanatuuzia bidhaa.” — Kaizirege Camara

The Pollination Business That Underpins Everything

Before the export story, there is the core agricultural service that Kaizirege has been delivering for a quarter century: pollination. This is a business that most Tanzanian farmers have not yet fully internalised into their production economics, but which is standard practice in commercial horticulture globally.

Commercial pollination services involve placing managed bee colonies in orchards and crop fields during flowering season to ensure adequate fertilisation and therefore consistent fruit set and yield. Avocado, mango, watermelon, and vegetable crops all benefit significantly from managed pollination. In markets like the United States and Europe, commercial beekeepers move hives hundreds of kilometres to service farm pollination contracts — it is a substantial agricultural services industry in its own right.

In Tanzania, Kaizirege represents one of the rare practitioners of this model. His 25 years of experience means he understands bee colony management at a level that most smallholder beekeepers — who keep bees primarily for honey — have not yet reached. That depth of knowledge is a resource available to any Tanzanian farmer seeking to improve their fruit set and yield consistency.

Building fremu.co.uk: The Export Journey

The pivot from domestic beekeeping to UK export is not a simple business transition. It requires navigating UK food import regulations, building relationships with logistics providers, managing quality consistency across multiple product categories, and developing enough consumer trust to sustain recurring orders.

Kaizirege has done all of this. His online store, fremu.co.uk, is a direct-to-consumer channel selling Tanzanian agricultural products to the UK market — a market that, for authentic African food products, has genuine and growing demand from both the diaspora and mainstream consumers interested in origin-specific, naturally produced foods.

The supply side of that business — finding reliable Tanzanian producers who can consistently deliver quality rice, flour, beans, and groundnuts — is where AGCOT’s network has proven its practical value. Kaizirege explicitly thanked AGCOT Centre for connecting him with the producers who supply his store. That single acknowledgment speaks volumes about what a well-managed professional network can do: it creates trade relationships that would otherwise take years of ground-level searching to establish.

What the Diaspora Can Do for Tanzanian Agriculture

Kaizirege Camara’s model is an illustration of a broader principle: the Tanzanian diaspora is not simply a source of remittances. It is a potential agricultural market channel, a source of brand credibility in foreign markets, and a bridge between Tanzanian producers and international consumers who are increasingly willing to pay premium prices for authentic, traceable, naturally produced African foods.

The challenge for Tanzania’s agricultural sector is to formalise and support that bridge — to make it easier for diaspora entrepreneurs like Kaizirege to source from domestic producers at scale, meet import compliance requirements, and grow their export volumes. AGCOT and TAHA are well-positioned to facilitate exactly this kind of linkage.

For now, Mzee wa Nyuki continues his work — tending his bees, facilitating pollination, and building his UK market one order at a time. Twenty-five years of patience with the hive is excellent preparation for the slower work of building an export market.