TEHRAN- Honey production in East Azarbaijan province, in the northwest of Iran, has reached 15,676 tons in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20), a provincial official announced.

Samad Zamanzad Qavidel, the deputy head of the province’s Agriculture Department for livestock products improvement, said: “This increase in production is due to the modification of the structure of old modern hives and the use of open floor hives, the use of imported and high-yielding hybrid queens, the replacement of native hives with modern ones, and the increase in the knowledge of the beekeepers due to the holding of training classes and conferences.”

He put the number of beekeepers and people working in East Azarbaijan apiaries at 17, 561 people.

Qavidel further put the number of modern colonies at 1,105,868 in the province, and said East Azarbaijan ranks first in the country in terms of the number of beehives, second in terms of honey production, and first in terms of processing and packaging.

Based on the data recently released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Iran is the third-largest producer of honey in the world.

MA/MA