Romanian honey production has decreased drastically due to excessive temperatures
Romania is a major honey producer, currently ranking second in Europe in terms of number of bee families, after Spain, with a total of 2.395 million hives, and it ranks third in terms of honey production.
Recently, the president of the Romanian Association of Beekeepers (ACA), Ioan Fetea, described the situation of the beekeeping sector in a dialogue with Agerpres news agency.
"The year 2024 was marked by a series of extreme weather events that drastically affected beekeeping production. In Europe and beyond, atmospheric conditions and climate change cause big problems for bee families and, unfortunately, Romania is no exception. This year, we lost about 40-45% of the honey production at national level. The production was affected starting with the first rapeseed harvest, continuing with acacia, where the production was affected up to 70% in some areas, linden as well, and sunflower production was down in most of the country due to excessive temperatures," said ACA president Fetea.
Financial background
In recent years, beekeepers have made special efforts to keep their bee families alive. Many of them will not get into winter with a large numbers of beehives. "Profitability is out of the question at the moment. This year, beekeepers had additional expenses compared to the 2023 season, around 218 RON per bee family (43 EUR). This means an additional financial effort of more than 20,000 RON (4000 EUR) for 100 families. It is not easy, especially in the situation in which the amount of honey that was produced this year cannot be sold at a price that could ensure the recovery or partial coverage of these expenses. In addition, young people no longer attend beekeeping classes, they are no longer interested in this activity, because they realize it is very difficult to survive and earn a living from an activity that depends 99% on nature," warned the head of ACA.
Market development
On the other hand, these difficulties are aggravated by the presence on the internal market of non-EU honey, which led to a significant drop in prices and affected the ability of Romanian beekeepers to capitalize on their modest production obtained in 2024. "We are in the third year in which honey exports have decreased a lot, and beekeepers have to face challenges related to the sale of honey. The honey that is imported into Romania and sold from the shelves of large stores is a honey-mix with honey from Ukraine or China, mixtures that have nothing to do with the special quality of the Romanian product, but the prices at which they are imported are certainly a fierce competition for the Romanian product. Today, honey is imported for 6-7 RON (approximately 1.2-1.4 EUR) per kg, while it costs us almost double, somewhere over 12-13 RON (2.4-2.6 EUR) per kg of honey," said Ioan Fetea.
Uncertain future perspective
According to the source, the crisis of Romanian beekeeping sector will not be solved too easily, even if the European Union is currently trying to implement a labeling that indicates the country of origin of the honey, in the case of the mixture, and the percentage of the mixture, because in Europe it still enters enough questionable honey.
The president of ACA also mentioned that, because of climate changes and extreme temperatures, bees have changed their behavior and in the last period there were a series of warnings about the fact that they have become irritable and attack.
Last but not least, the head of ACA expressed his regret that no solutions were found for the implementation of the "Honey in Schools" programme, postponed already for many years, although Romania is at the bottom of the European ranking regarding honey consumption. The average consumption of honey in Romania is somewhere between 600-750 grams per person annually, according to ACA, although official statistics indicate a consumption of almost one kg per capita.
At the moment, Romanian beekeepers are requesting financial support from authorities, considering the major difficulties the sector is facing due to the extreme weather conditions in 2024 and the negative impact of non-EU honey imports on the domestic market.