Every Thursday, ILQ features a different Qatari startup in our ‘Startup of the Week’ segment. Qatar has some of the most creative, unique, and impactful startups in the region, and we cover them all across a variety of industries in Doha—from fashion and beauty, to food and dining, health, education, technology, and more!

This week, we're pouring the goodness of 100% natural and organic honey in Qatar through Bee—a barely-month old startup that uses a wide range of European monofloral kinds of honey that have not been heated, aren't excessively filtered, and not in any way mixed with low-quality honey from anywhere else in the world.

The aim of Bee is to make people aware of the quality and the different types of honey available in Qatar, according to its lady founder Sumaya Al-Ziani.

"Our love for honey and the belief that it is a gift from nature as it's an effective source of medicine as well, has guided us to start a business that offers only natural and organic bee extract."

Most people in Qatar is well aware that honey is more than just a sweetener. But in order to get all the vitamins, enzymes, and other health benefits from it, it's essential to use a 100% natural and organic type of honey. This is what pushed Sumaya to come up with the mission of providing only the highest quality of honey to her customers.

To guarantee the quality of the honey that they're selling, there are several methods in the different stages of the honey production and processing that the Bee team is implementing:

1. Beehives should be made from natural materials
2. Beehives should be placed in an area of minimum 36 square km free from potential contamination sources
3. Beekeepers must take only 1/3 of the honey from the hive and allow the bees to consume their own honey during winters and periods with less forage
4. Bees’ health should be managed without the use of conventional veterinary products to control diseases such as antibiotics. Instead, they can use natural acids to deal with mites, for example
5. Honey should be stored in containers cleaned without chemical detergent or soap.

Each of the four Bee products is not very well known and has its own unique colour and flavour suitable for specific use:

1. BEE Unique: Acacia blossom honey from Romania
2. BEE Different: Linden blossom honey from Bulgaria
3. BEE Classic: Thyme honey from Italy
4. BEE Authentic: Forest honey from Italy

It’s been almost a year since Sumaya introduced her first product to the Qatari market, HoneySpoonQA—which we've already featured on this column a couple of months back. The product has become more popular in Qatar after the feature as it is now being used in many coffee shops in Doha including Flatwhite specialty coffee, Origin café, and Walter’s coffee roastery as a healthy alternative for sugar.

Bee is also proud to say that they've successfully introduced their own version of "organic honey" in the yearly honey market in Souq Waqif. Honey lovers are raving about how good their product was and the fact that they were the only ones who use organic monofloral honey out of the many stalls scattered all over the venue.

"We're glad to offer high qualitative and unique types of honey and people really loved them. We also love the fact that we have attracted both citizens and residents of Qatar with the honey that we're selling—especially those ones who came from from forested countries."

The price per bottle is 120 QAR but if you buy three bottles or more, you'll get each one for only 95 QAR. Bee products are available at the moment ONLY on their Instagram page. Also, Bee will soon be collaborating with shops to further showcase their products.

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Sonkie

Content writer

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