TEHRAN- Native and immigrant beekeepers of southwestern Bushehr province harvested 800 tons of spring honey in the mountainous areas and coastal plains of the province before moving to summer areas, a bee breeding expert of the province’s Agricultural Department announced.

Farid Sadeqizadeh said that of the mentioned amount, 350 tons of honey were produced by native beekeepers and 450 tons by migrant and non-native beekeepers.

He also said that last year 350 tons of spring honey were harvested in Bushehr province.

Spring honey has many medicinal properties because it is harvested from the nectar of several plants, the expert noted.

As announced by the head of the bee research department of Animal Science Research Institute of Iran (ASRI), Iran produced 136,000 tons of honey in the past Iranian calendar year 1401 (ended on March 20).

Naser Taj-Abadi said that this amount of honey production is high, while many factors affect production growth.

Taj-Abadi has said that according to the strategic document that was compiled and unveiled in the Iranian calendar year 1397 (March 2018-March 2019), honey production in the country is planned to increase by four percent each year.

It should be noted that this document has considered 15 percent growth in the production of some products of the beekeeping industry, such as royal jelly and propolis, he added.

As previously announced by the chairman of the Agriculture Committee of Iran Chamber of Cooperatives (ICC), Iran exports honey to 22 countries around the world.

Arsalan Qasemi put the country’s value of honey export at $5.6 million.

He named China, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Germany, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iraq, and Lebanon as the most important export destinations of Iranian honey.

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, 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.

MA