Government announces support for beekeepers

Individuals and legal entities engaged in beekeeping will be granted with subsidies.

The subsides will be given for each bee family that they keep in accordance with the degree signed by Prime Minister Novruz Mammadov. This decision is valid for five years, including 2018.

Recently, the Azerbaijan Beekeepers Association, together with the country’s Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Agriculture, has prepared a new state program on development of beekeeping. The state program is designed for 2018-2022 in order to eliminate existing shortcomings in this area.

Head of Azerbaijan Beekeepers Association, Badraddin Hasratov also informs that this year slight increase in honey production is expected in Azerbaijan.

He said that these are preliminary predictions, because the filtration of honey in some regions has not yet been completed.

“We expect that this year honey production will be about 3,000 tons or more. But this is still the preliminary forecast” Hasratov told Trend.

Speaking of forecast reduction, Hasratov emphasized that this problem was related to the weather conditions in some regions. Previously, the Association predicts that 5,000 tonnes of honey will be produced in 2018.

“In some mountainous and foothill regions, especially in northwest and northern regions, the productivity was low. This is because of the cold spring, and later sudden warming. As a result, the flowers could not give enough pollen. But in some regions and south of the country, high productivity was recorded. In some places, up to 50 kilograms of product was harvested from a bee family. Therefore, productivity remained at the previous level. Last year, about 20 kilograms of product was harvested from each bee family in these regions. Significant increase in this area was recorded,” concluded the head of the association.

The rich climate of subtropics, the riotous diversity of flora and the valuable qualities of local bees these are the favorable natural conditions of Azerbaijan, which contributed to the maintenance of the centuries-old tradition of beekeeping in Transcaucasia.

During the excavation in The Azokh Cave, where one of the most ancient settlements of the primitive man was discovered, a bowl with the bee depicted on it was found, which once again proves that beekeeping has deep roots in Azerbaijan.

From 1990 to 1999, beekeeping in the country decreased by 45 percent. There were many reasons for that. Most apiaries were destroyed in the area of military operations.

At present, Azerbaijan exported honey, as well as dairy products, eggs and other kinds of food products of animal origin worth $4.71 million, and imported products worth $66.45 million in JanuaryJune 2018.

Exports increased by 23.6 percent, and imports - by 11.54 percent in January-June 2018, compared to January-June 2017.