2024, between drought and strong temperature changes, risks being a terrible year for the entire beekeeping sector.
The situation continues to worsen and compared to last year, in some cases honey production approaches zero.
And the photograph of the sector taken by Coldiretti of Basilicata.
Producing a few kilos of honey per hive is equivalent to a loss for the beekeeper, considering the costs that must be borne for emergency food, management, fuel and employee wages.
Explains Rocco Sinisgalli, beekeeper from Coldiretti, manager of the “Wellbeing Apiary” in Teana:
“Lucanian beekeeping is facing another truly critical season – this year too, with some exceptions, spring honeys have almost disappeared, with the months of April and May truly critical from a climatic point of view.
Honey production is concentrated in limited periods and the climate crisis is having a devastating effect on the sector and our friends bees.
It has become a real emergency and the quantities are very small and talking about a harvest is ridiculous.
The last three years have been devastating for the sector, if we consider low production, ever-increasing costs of production, management and sustenance of bees and the price of honey which has been frozen for some time.
Lucanian beekeeping, like Italian beekeeping in general, is in crisis and if this trend continues, yesThere is a risk that the beekeeper’s profession will disappear forever and that by the end of the year, or in 2025, companies will also close.”
Honey will always arrive on the tables of Lucanians, even if production is close to zero.
For example from Slovenia, Romania, EU and non-EU countries, perhaps at a lower price, “knowing that the customer – highlights Coldiretti Basilicata – buys it anyway”.
“Even honey, like many quality agricultural products, risks falling by the wayside – adds Sinisgalli – if pollinators disappear, a large part of our world will change, because plants and pollinators have evolved together.
We cannot make everything self-fertile: for every botanical species that disappears, all those who feed on them and the other species for which they in turn feed will disappear.
We must start talking about the future, of beekeeping as well as of all agriculture in general, because this means talk about our future and we cannot be indifferent.
We should increasingly educate the consumer, guide him in choosing products, those who buy honey should learn to look for Italian honey.
And then to never rely on cost.
Too low a price is always a bad indicator.”
For the Lucanian Coldiretti “it is necessary at this moment to open crisis tables to prevent the damage from being irreparable for the entire beekeeping sector”.
