BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 21
By Fidan Babayeva – Trend:
During special quarantine regime in Azerbaijan, sales volume of bee products has grown, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Beekeepers Association Badraddin Hasratov told Trend on May 21.
"The sales on the local market increased by 20 percent since early 2020 to date compared to the same period of last year," said Hasratov.
According to the chairman, the import of honey in Azerbaijan has also increased, although the country has rather big honey reserves.
"In parallel with this, competition with foreign producers is growing, while local sales of domestic bee products drop,” he said. “Last year, cheap sunflower honey was imported in big volumes from Iran and Ukraine."
He noted that in 2019, the volume of honey produced in Azerbaijan for sale was 6,000 tons, and the demand in the domestic market, according to the last year’s calculations, made up 5,000 tons.
“This means that the country has enough honey reserves to satisfy the domestic demand, and no import is needed,” Hasratov said. “Two years ago, the number of bee families in Azerbaijan amounted to 200,000, and this year it reached 500,000.”
"The yield has also increased. So, if earlier we obtained 10 kilograms of honey from one bee hive, then now yield has increased by five kilograms. At the end of May, we will begin collecting the first honey in 2020, and this process will continue until the end of August," added the chairman.
The Azerbaijan Beekeepers Association, established in early 2016, unites 10,000 beekeepers and entrepreneurs in 50 districts - 46 farms in districts and four farms in cities.
The main goals of the Association are the development of beekeeping, the solution of specific problems of beekeepers and the development of a general concept for the development of beekeeping.
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