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Agriculture: This year's honey production will be reduced to rd 12,000-13,000 tonnes, beekeepers ask for support
This year's honey production is going to be somewhere round 12,000 to 13,000 tons due to drought, well below the average of a good year, such as 2015, when Romania was on the first place in Europe with over 32,000 tons of honey, the president of the Association of Bee Breeders in Romania (ACA), Ioan Fetea said.
"The production varies from county to county, in the disaster areas it is up to 70% or more compromised, and in the others it is somewhere between 50-60%. From our perspective it will be somewhere around 45% of the annual average, because apart from the rapeseed, where there were rains anyway, there was wind, they overlapped with the nectar picking and in these conditions only small quantities were made. The acacia (honey) halted at 40%-50%, and here in the west, at Valea lui Mihai, even 70%-80%, so we can not talk about any productions, given the fact that in the pastoral areas these harvests move somewhere, on average, 35%-40% of beekeepers and bee families respectively. Or, relative to the entire flock of beess, of course, the production on the family that stayed on the old hearth and the others is low. If we compare ourselves to a good year, 2015 for example, when we were on the first place in Europe with over 32,000 tonnes of honey, now we are doing somewhere between 12-13,000 tonnes," the ACA president said.
He said that beekeepers had to stimulate the bees in July, during the harvest, as in the spring, in order to be able to keep them "in shape" so that they could capitalize.
"Now in July we simulated that as if we were in September so that the bee families would not die and we took money out of our pockets, as we did in the spring. Some even at harvesting, had to go with the syrup, because the bees must be kept, as they say 'in shape', if better times come to be able to capitalize," the ACA chief explained.
According to Fetea, this year the beekeepers' expenses will increase by 40-50%, by 100 -150 RON more than last year, and this will be seen in the price of honey.
"Regarding the price of honey, in acquisitions, compared to last year, the peak has fallen and there is no market this year for honey. That is, this year it is exported very, very little, and the internal market is blocked because there is still some honey left from previous years, plus it comes honey from Ukraine, uncontrolled," he added.
Given the circumstances, the ACA has asked the Ministry of Agriculture for a de minimis aid of 20 euros per bee family, which could come to rectification if there are sufficient funds.
On the other hand, Fetea also drew attention to the lack of export contracts, due to the large quantities of honey left last year on the European market, but also to some surrogates brought to low prices from Ukraine or South America.
He announced that the ACA will organize in the second weekend of September the autumn edition of the National Honey Fair, on the beekeeping platform in Baneasa (northern Bucharest).
Romania produces, on average, 22,000 tonnes of honey annually, ranking fourth in Europe, with rd 1.47 million bee families.
At the national level, around 40,000 beekeepers are registered, over 60% of them being ACA members, with as many as 900,000 bee families.