With the integration of 38 queen bees, they seek to strengthen beekeeping in Yucatan, after authorities and organizations such as Abeja Planet lamented in January that many beekeepers would have given up on the activity due to less than 10 tons of exportation in 2022.
According to the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader), honey production would have reached about 8,000 tons in 2022, and although it was a reason for celebration, with the announcement of a recovery after the pandemic, the numbers are still low.
Nationally, honey production in Mexico reached 61,900 tons, and ranks as the fifth largest honey exporter in the world, while of the eight thousand tons of honey from Yucatan, they were exported to the United States, Saudi Arabia and Europe, mainly to Germany.
It is estimated that there are 11,000 beekeepers and around 250,000 beehives in Yucatan, “when a few years ago the number of beekeepers was 13,000 to 14,000 and there were around 350,000 beehives, and annual honey production was 10,000 tons,” said the director of Abeja Planet, Nelly Ortiz Vázquez, who informed that in 2022 Yucatan.
Ortiz Vázquez commented that currently Yucatecan producers are collecting honey, an activity that will conclude in May, and they face cold, drought, and clearing for crops and livestock that have impacted Yucatan’s beekeeping and reduced the number of beehives.
As a strategy, the Secretariat of Rural Development (Seder) of the State government has managed the distribution of 38,000 high-quality genetic queen bee specimens in order to improve the status of honey and promote its commercialization for the benefit of beekeepers.
On this occasion, men and women dedicated to this activity from the municipalities of Izamal, Tixkokob, Muna, Teabo, and Yaxcabá received more than 100 packages of these insects, where each package delivered to beekeepers consists of a queen bee and nine nurse bees.
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