SERIAN: What began as a family’s search for pure stingless bee honey has grown into a small home-grown business that now serves customers as far as Germany and Japan.
For Angela Caesarina Samana, the journey into agribusiness was never part of a grand plan.
Instead, it started with a simple concern for her ageing parents.
“My family was looking for pure stingless bee honey but we couldn’t find one that we were confident about.
“They wanted a healthier substitute for sugar so we decided to rear our own stingless bees instead,” she told Sarawak Tribune.
The project, which began in 2021 at Kampung Tijirak in Siburan, was initially meant only for family consumption.
Angela started on a small scale to gauge public interest before gradually expanding production after seeing encouraging demand.
“What started for the family turned into something with potential. We thought, why not share it with other people too?”
Today, her stingless bee honey is sold throughout Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia while overseas orders have reached Brunei, Germany and Japan.
She said venturing into international markets in 2024 was less daunting than expected, thanks to assistance from government agencies that helped promote local products.
“They really helped us with promotion and connecting us to the market.”
Not content with producing honey alone, Angela later ventured into coffee cultivation through a government-supported project in Siburan.
Together with two partners, she began with about 250 coffee trees each, giving the group close to 1,000 trees in total.
“The market has been very encouraging. Every day there are people asking for our coffee.”
They currently supply coffee beans to Earthlings Coffee in Kuching, where they also receive guidance on plantation management, harvesting techniques and post-harvest processing.
Unlike many crops, Angela said coffee could be grown in both lowland and highland areas, although soil health remained important.
“If the land previously had rubber trees, we need to treat the soil first because diseases from rubber can affect the coffee plants.”
The business has also evolved from relying entirely on manual labour to gradually investing in equipment as sales improved.
“In the beginning, everything was done by hand. We peeled, roasted, pounded and processed everything ourselves.
“Only after we started earning some income did we slowly buy machines.”
Even today, much of the process still requires patience.
Freshly harvested coffee cherries are sun-dried for between two and three weeks, depending on whether they undergo a full-wash or honey process.
Angela has also diversified her offerings by producing tea from coffee blossoms and young coffee leaves, both of which require careful drying to preserve their aroma and quality.
Coffee farming, she said, is not a venture for those expecting immediate returns.
A coffee tree produces relatively little fruit during its first three years, with significant harvests only beginning after four or five years.
To maintain production, regular pruning, fertilising and adequate sunlight are essential.
“You have to keep the tree at a manageable height so it’s easier to harvest, and sunlight must reach the branches.
“Otherwise, diseases can develop because the trees need sufficient sunlight.”
Harvesting is also continuous because coffee cherries ripen at different times.
“There will always be some fruits that are ready while others are still growing, so as long as you take care of the trees, harvesting doesn’t really stop.”
While coffee remains a developing venture that currently generates only a few hundred ringgit in income, Angela said her stingless bee honey business brings in about RM1,800 a month.
For her, however, the biggest reward lies beyond the numbers.
With her stingless bee honey already finding customers beyond Malaysia, Angela is now setting her sights on giving her coffee venture the same opportunity to grow.
