“Two thousand flies flocked to a honeycomb of rich honey, which, due to their sweet tooth, died imprisoned by their legs in it…”, tells the fable of the writer Félix María Samaniego. Well, Spain, almost three centuries later, loses its hives because beekeepers suffer one of the worst moments in history. It is time for mobilizations. They even bathe themselves with honey in front of institutional buildings to demonstrate that the native product, with which Sky-high operating costs and massive imports from China, has very little value. It is not profitable to produce it under these conditions.
Pablo Sáez, a beekeeper, maintains that “the sector is still installed in ruins” and “the administration is not doing anything.” He assures that the entire ecosystem is endangered by “high levels of environmental contamination: 70% of the bees of the hives are dead“, he regrets. Javier Molins, who burned between 150 and 200 beehives in the Bejís fire last summer, comments that the economic cost was around 40,000 euros and he has not received any kind of help.
In the sector as a whole, the data is worrying. The honey harvest has been reduced by 50% during 2022 throughout the countryAmong other things, because beekeepers are focusing a large part of their efforts on recovering the hives and not so much on producing honey. The situation has “aggravated” in recent years, explains Pedro Loscertales, head of COAG’s beekeeping sector. Spain It has been accumulating losses in honey production since 2018. The Spanish market went from registering 36,394 tons in that year to 28,000 in 2022, an amount “well below the average of the last five years,” according to the latest report from Mercasa, the public company that manages wholesale markets.
In their report on beekeeping, the agricultural organizations AVA-Asaja, Asaja Alicante, APAC, Unió Llauradora, UPA-PV, CCPV-COAG and ApiAds reveal that the honey harvest collapses, among other factors, due to drought and increased infestations of varroa (an external parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on bees). In addition, it fully affects the weakening of the hives that has been dragging on in recent years, which causes a significant work effort to focus on their recovery and not on producing honey. This decrease in the harvest accompanied by the important increase in production coststhe rise in fuel and supplementary food is severely affecting the sector.
If we look at the data, the Spanish packaging industries imported a total of 35,260 tons of honey until November 2022. This amount already represents 3,633 tons more than what was imported in all of 2021 and 3,009 tons more than in all of 2017 (record year for imports in Spain so far).
Chinese competition
Most of the honey comes from China., which is the largest supplier of this product for the Spanish agri-food industry with almost 90% of the total imported. And at what price? If a kilogram of this product cost a Spanish beekeeper in 2022 around 3.7 euro (the price at source), companies are buying honey from Chinese operators for less than one and a half euros. Without a doubt, at those prices, it is difficult to compete.
Packers and distribution have also replaced Spanish honey with honey from other sources, such as Uruguay, Turkey and Ukraine. “While a very significant percentage of our honey is yet to be sold, imports do not cease at prices with which no Spanish producer or producer can compete, which means that the few sales and offers are made at prices well below cost of current production”, explains Loscertales.
Despite everything, employment is maintained, although it has an uncertain future. Spain had 35,300 beekeepers (REGA data, March 2021), which represents an increase of 4.3% compared to the previous year, of which around 18% are professionals (those whose farms have more than 150 hives).
looking for help
To do? Professional beekeepers maintain that without help you cannot survive. For this reason, the Valencian organizations have requested agri-environmental funds to prevent them from having to go to other autonomous communities where they receive them with a “red carpet”.
The head of the AVA-Asaja beekeeping sector, Pascual del Valle, assures that “Valencian beekeepers are dying after many ruinous campaigns due to climatic adversities, the lack of solutions to diseases and the scant support of the Valencian government. While other autonomous communities support the sector with sufficient aid, the Generalitat barely provides a token aid”.
For this reason, it calls for “a crash plan with immediate and forceful support measures that guarantee the viability of beekeepers, as well as reciprocity with honey from third countries and a label that clearly distinguishes the proximity product” .
The costs skyrocket because transhumant beekeeping takes the hives wherever there is a specific circumstance of availability of nectar or pollen for the bees. And those transfers require more fuel and transportation expenses.
Related news
On the other hand, they criticize that the regional viability plan for beekeeping has been forgotten for two years now and they have demanded immediate solutions to the pinyolà; that is, the cross pollination caused by insects that causes the abundance of seeds in the fruit. Since 1993, a Valencian Community law prohibits hives within 5 km of citrus crops during the months of April and May.
Beyond the pine tree, the survival of bees is threatened in the rest of the old continent. In fact, the European Commission (EC) itself announced on February 2 a series of restrictions on the use of insecticides used on agricultural crops, establishing maximum limits to protect pollinators. If the bees die, pollination is destroyed. In Europe, 37% of the remaining bees are at risk of disappearing. Without them there will be no agriculture or biodiversity. 75% of the food we eat depends on them.