TEHRAN- The head of Lorestan province’s Agriculture Department, put the province’s annual honey production at 3,800 tons.

Emad Shahrokhi said, “We are ranked the 9th in the country with 4,200 colonies, while last year we were on the 11th place. Therefore, the development of the honey industry is one of our priorities and we must strengthen it.”

“Last year, we distributed 3,500 tons of sugar among the beekeepers and we held also several training classes for them”, he added.

Last month, the managing director of the beekeeping industry development support fund said this fund provides 170 billion rials (about $440,760) of low-interest facilities to beekeepers with the aim of helping the country's beekeeping industry.

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.

Mokhtar Mohajer said, “According to the Seventh National Development Plan, 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