Which European countries “love” Greek honey, the problems of beekeepers

The messages have a “sweet taste” received by beekeepers regarding the quantities of honey that are expected to be harvested this year, a year that, if nothing else, can not be described as easy, considering the difficulties faced by professionals in the field, such as increasing production costs.

The year has started well in terms of flower honeys with the president of the Federation of Beekeeping Associations of Greece (OMSE), Anastasios Pontiki to report to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency that “the year is going very well for the producers. We had good productions in flower honey as our beehives were favored by the good weather conditions that prevailed in the spring “.

The news from the fir forests is also positive, where the beehives have now been transferred with the productions being at an extremely good level, according to him.

Then the beekeepers will “graze” their bees in places where there are oaks but also in thyme places where thyme honey will be produced. “The messages we are receiving about this year’s crop production are positive,” he said, while avoiding making any specific predictions since, as he said, there are many variables that can affect total production by the end of the beekeeping season, such as weather and .a.

Exports of 6.3 million kilos of honey in 2021

Last year, more than 6.3 million kilos of honey were exported from our country to the international markets (s.s. 6,362,069 kilos), with their value, according to Eurostat data, amounting to 25, 8 million euros (25,872,165 euros), and their average price is around 4.07 euros per kilo.

“The honeys that are exported are mainly dark colors, such as fir honey and pine honey,” Mr. Pontikis told APE-MPE, adding that the first three countries importing Greek honey “mainly buy half of the exportable quantity.”

“Champion” in Greek honey imports is Italy, with the neighboring country importing Greek honey 1,441,659 kilos of total value, 3,796,335 euros. It is followed by Germany with 1,305,679 kilos of honey, worth 5,734,964 euros and France with 420,214 kilos worth 2,013,528 euros.

In Halkidiki and Thassos for pine honey

The catastrophic fires that burned last summer a large part of Evia, a place where in recent years beekeepers from all over Greece brought their bees and produced pine honey, which represents 60-65% of Greek honey production, has forced producers to look elsewhere. Now, according to Mr. Pontikis, the beehives are placed in Halkidiki and Thassos mainly but also in other, smaller forests throughout the territory.

Forests that, according to him, both the state and the professionals in the field should exploit and highlight in order to fill as much as possible the “gap” left to beekeepers by the fires in Evia.

“The increase in the price of fuel raises the cost of production”

However, with the price of fuel constantly rising, the beekeeping industry could not remain unaffected, as beekeepers need to travel several times and hundreds of kilometers each week to place and care for their beehives.

“The cost of fuel is the main reason for the increase in production costs at the moment. “We do not know how we can handle it,” he said. necessary actions on our part for this organization to function “.

A problem that, as he points out, he has informed the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, and specifically to the competent Undersecretary, Simos Kedikoglou, that “a measure must be found to reduce the cost of fuel to us”.

An equally important problem, as Mr. Pontikis mentions, is this of the supply of sugarwhich is mainly used for the development of bee colonies.

Finally, perhaps the most important problem of the industry is that of Hellenization. “Of course we can not, but we do not want to ban the import of honey, but what the producer wants is to carry out scrutiny by the competent mechanisms,” said the president of OMSE. to understand this phenomenon, which leads beekeepers to wither “.