LINCOLN PARK — Three Chicago teens have launched a 1.2 million-bee honey operation in the mountains of Ecuador — and aim to expand their operation more than tenfold.
The three best friends, all seniors at Francis W. Parker School, aren't getting rich, however. All the profits are being used to help support Ecuadoran farmers and their families.
Paul Biasco says these kids are now providing local farmers a chance to get into the bee business:
Andrew Sacks, 18, was born in Ecuador before moving to the U.S. when he was 2 years old. Now a senior, he took a summer trip back after his freshman year and decided he wanted to rekindle a connection with the country.
During that first trip, Sacks worked with the Indigenous Association of Cotacachi Beekeepers. He recalled "overlooking miles and miles of mountains and forestation."
"They take out these frames of honey from the hives, and they cut them off for us," Sacks said. "It was just a remarkable experience."
Sacks returned to Ecuador the next year with classmate Sam Smith, 17, and realized they could sell the Cotacachi honey in the U.S. and send back the profits.
The initial plan was to buy the honey from the association of beekeepers. In their first year, the students, Nick Helfand, 17, Sacks and Smith, sold $24,000 worth of honey gathered from Ecuadorian farmers.
The three buddies marketed their honey as a holiday gift box for Hanukkah and as a Christmas pack alongside bars of Pacari Chocolate, which is also made in Ecuador. They even got a representative from OK Kosher to fly to Ecuador to inspect the process and certify the honey. Everything down to the design of the packaging was made in Ecuador.
"That's all doing its part to stimulate the economy there," Helfand said.
They sent all $19,000 in profits back to a scholarship fund that covered needs for 15 Ecuadoran high school students, such as transportation, books and uniforms for four years each.
The Parker students' Cotacachi Honey Fund decided to go in a different direction after the first year and is now focused on growing a network of its own honey producers rather than buying the honey from the Indigenous Association of Cotacachi Beekeepers.
The teens hope to supplement the income of Ecuadorian coffee and cane farmers by helping them set up beehives on their properties to produce honey.
"Supporting a scholarship fund was great, but the way our work could go furthest for the community would be to bolster the local economy, to offer new economic opportunities to families," Sacks said.
Beekeeping doesn't take up a lot of land, and the additional income from just three hives on a property can yield more than $1,000 a year, Sacks said.
The students hired the former head of the beekeeping association as a partner, and so far the fund has trained three farmers with 10 hives each and built 20 training hives.
The idea is that the Cotacachi Honey Fund will invest $3,120 in each farmer by supplying the hives, bees, training and other equipment in exchange for honey during the first three years of production. The fund expects each farm to produce 1,200 pounds of honey a year and give the fund 400 pounds for free for the first three years.
The fund will in turn buy the other 900 pounds for $1.70 per pound and take the profits from selling the honey in the U.S. to reinvest in new farmers. The rate is roughly double the price of what producers had been receiving in the local market.
After three years, the fund will buy all 1,200 pounds of honey.
The Ecuadorian government has taken note, and in October selected the Cotacachi Honey Fund for a $180,000 grant over the next two years to expand from 50 to 500 beehives.
That means 45 new farmers will each get a complete setup, including training to supplement their income.
In December, the government of Ecuador's Imbabura province awarded $16,000 to a group of farmers to join the Cotacachi Honey Fund.
"The reason why this is so exciting is because it was their own initiative," Sacks said.
What started as a small effort to bolster a scholarship fund is growing into a full-scale enterprise that will mean finding retailers who will carry the honey on their shelves.
Currently, the honey fund sells its items online and through mass gift orders but is working to get its products in stores.
"Our hope is when you walk into, God willing, Whole Foods and Mariano's, is that you go to the honey section, and you see this individual jar standing alone, and you buy the product because it looks great, as well as the story," Sacks said.
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