A harvest of honey from the equatorial forests of South Sudan will help its struggling poor and, through the pollination of bees, improve the nation's crop yields, those involved say.

South Sudan's honey harvests had suffered because decades of fighting closed off the former main trade route through the north.

Honey Care Africa has been working since 2013 in South Sudan, where it sees potential to collect honey from bees immune to the problems that have depleted colonies in the United States, and to a lesser extent in Europe.

While Sudan's oil wealth helped to fuel the conflict, corruption and rivalry that led South Sudan to be split off from Sudan, reviving honey production can aid recovery among the poorest in one of the world's least developed countries.

Relations between Sudan and South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011, remain fraught, leaving little hope of re-establishing the south-north route.

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