Locaal | Miels d'Anicet - A Locaal producer of products made in Québec

Anicet Desrochers may have been born into a family of beekeepers, but it took him a trip to the other side of the world to decide to devote his life to bees. He learned how to transform his passion into entrepreneurial success by producing honey in various forms.

When he entered university, Anicet Desrochers wasn't very interested in beekeeping, so he chose to study anthropology and then to specialize in ethnology and medicinal plants. In 1997, the young man set out to discover several islands in the Indian Ocean, including Madagascar and Reunion Island, where he met a family of Creole beekeepers who harvested lychee honey.

This experience was a revelation for him. “It was by going to the far reaches of the world that I understood that the beekeeping practiced by my parents could have a link to anthropology and other sciences,” he explained. Back in Canada, he studied bee biology in Vancouver, where he learned about the genetic selection of these insects.