Turkish Central Union of Beekeeping (TAB) President Bahri Yılmaz said they are vying to gear up domestic honey production with an emphasis on new investments and the promotion of more effective production methods.
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency on Monday in Mersin, Yılmaz noted that there are 4.9 million beehives in Turkey producing 83,000 tons of honey in total. To increase these figures, the beekeepers established TAB and have organized themselves in 79 cities, with 40,445 members. “Our purpose is to offer markets more quality and less expensive honey by processing it in our packing facilities,” he said. In this context, Yılmaz added, TAB opened its 12th packing unit in Mersin.
Recalling that Turkey is the second country in terms of volume of honey production after China, Yılmaz said 22 percent honey-producing species of bees and 72 percent of flower varieties that produce nectar are found in Turkey. However, the country is far behind its potential in honey production, largely due to “additive-mixed honey, difficult production conditions and unsatisfactory market prices.”
“Exporters used to sell glucose syrup in place of honey in the past. We detected these companies and complained about them to the countries they are conducting trade with. Europe is hungry for quality and healthy honey,” he argued. “We are now quite eager to sell our honey to European customers in larger quantities. EU member countries consume 240,000 tons of honey a year and import almost all of this demand since they lack the necessary conditions to produce their own honey. This demonstrates Turkey’s significance in the field.”
Explaining the reason behind the foundation of TAB, Yılmaz said tradesmen were paying TL 5 per kilogram of honey to beekeepers while selling it at prices between TL 17 and TL 30 per kilogram in the market. “In our meetings to discuss this anomaly and ways to overcome it, the idea of packaging our own honey by ourselves emerged,” he said.
