TEHRAN- As announced by a provincial official, 378 tons of honey was produced in Qom province during the past Iranian calendar year 1401 (ended on March 20).

Babak Rahbarnia, the director of poultry and bee affairs of the province’s Agriculture Department, said that this amount of honey was produced in 39,534 bee colonies in the province.

He said that the beekeepers of the province had other side products last year, including 10,415 kg of wax, 420 kg of propolis, 482 kg of royal jelly, more than three tons of pollen, and 25 grams of bee venom.

Saying that about 640 people are directly employed in the province's beekeeping industry, Rahbarnia added: “We are seeking to create more added value in the province’s beekeeping industry and improve the income of the beekeepers by focusing on increasing production of side products”.

According to the latest census of the country's apiaries by the Agriculture Ministry, the production of honey is 136,000 tons in the country, a board member of the Iran Beekeepers Association announced.

Mohammad Fekri said that with producing 30,000 tons of honey per annum, West Azarbaijan province supplies more than 22 percent of the country's annual honey, East Azarbaijan, Fars, Ardebil and Kermanshah provinces come next, and about 43 percent of the honey is produced in other provinces.

As stated by the chairman of the Animal Science Research Institute of Iran (ASRI), Iran ranks third in the world in the number of apiaries.

Mokhtar Mohajer also said that Iran's rank in honey production is changing and moving between fourth and sixth place in the world.

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

The chairman of the Animal Science Research Institute has said that the amount of honey production in the country should be increased by three to four kilograms per colony.

Mohajer said, “According to the Seventh National Development Plan (2022-2026), the amount of honey production should be increased by at least three to four kilograms per colony according to the diversity of plants and the area of pastures that we have in the country”.

He announced that 8,300 kilograms of royal jelly, 406 tons of pollen, 2,536 tons of beeswax, 247 tons of propolis, and 3,917 grams of bee venom are produced annually in the country.

Currently, there are about 11.8 million bee colonies in 109,759 apiaries in the country, he added.

Pointing out that Iran ranks third in the world in the number of apiaries, he said 87,932 people are working in apiaries in the country, and the output of these apiaries is honey and its by-products.

Stating that all these products are not consumed domestically, he said about 10 percent of these products are exported to countries such as Turkey and Arab countries.

Complaining about the low amount of honey production compared to the number of apiaries and colonies, Mohajer said the average production of honey in Iran is much lower than the standard, in a way that about four kilograms of honey is produced in traditional colonies, and an average of 9.6 kilograms of honey is produced in modern colonies.

He stated that the low literacy of the producers is one of the main reasons for the low production in the colonies, adding that the production potential of each bee colony in the country is more than 25 kilograms.

MA