Like bees, beekeepers are also at risk of extinction. If bad weather reduces the harvest, year after year, almost eliminating that of some plants, companies that have employees are unable to make ends meet, crushed by taxes, compensation never received and increasingly reduced margins.
«The beekeepers are desperate – explains Pietro Miliffi, president of the Forlì beekeepers’ association, a cooperative society which brings together around 400 beekeepers in the provinces of Forlì-Cesena and Rimini -. For a company that has workers, the company risks going bankrupt because it is unable to recover the income between taxes, contributions and everything else. There are people who have 500-600 boxes of honey who are thinking of closing up shop.”
The honey sector is therefore anything but sweet for those who have chosen it as a profession. «Last year – he continues – the profit margins from honey were low, we didn’t see reimbursements and the animals move with a consequent increase in prices linked to LPG. We try to put on a good face at a bad situation but we have been living in this situation for 4-5 years now, companies risk dying.”
The resources allocated by the government to support beekeepers have never reached their pockets. «The compensation allocated by the State – explains Miliffi – was supposed to arrive through the Region but in a year they have not yet been paid to us. Companies that lost bees during last year’s floods have yet to be at least partially compensated.” Approximately 1,600 beehives were swept away by last year’s flood and as many, in the following months, were left isolated by the collapse of the roads essential to reaching them. Even if we will have to wait until mid-August to have precise data relating to nectar production, the limited availability of the product is already clear, also due to bad weather. This year it will be almost impossible to find jars of acacia honey produced in the Forlì area as happened last year.
«The cold, rain and wind of recent months has practically canceled production while for the lime tree the production is around 6-7 kilos per box – says the president of the Forlì beekeepers’ association -. In some cases, due to the bad weather, the bees split up and we lost some swarms.” In some cases this year too we had to resort to emergency nutrition. «In Romagna there is someone who continues to feed the hives in the low hills and plains so as not to let them die of hunger – explains Miliffi –. Compared to last year, the number of hives has remained the same.”
