TEHRAN- The managing director of Iran National Union of Beekeepers said that the value-added tax for honey and by-products should be removed.

Mir-Mohsen Mousavian mentioned this tax a major barrier for the work of beekeepers and said: "Unfortunately, last year, a law was passed stating that bee products will be taxed at nine percent, while the law states that agricultural products are exempt from value-added tax.”

Expressing his complaint about the lack of necessary support for beekeepers, he said: “The future of the country's beekeeping industry depends on the level of government support.”

The Ministry of Agriculture is expected to take time to support beekeeping in the country and examine the problems of this sector, Mousavian added.

As stated by the chairman of the Animal Science Research Institute of Iran (ASRI), the amount of honey production in the country should be increased by three to four kilograms per colony.

Mokhtar 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 112,000 tons of honey, 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/MA