Honey output in northeastern Iran on rise

The production of honey in North Khorasan province, in the
northeast of Iran, rose 11 percent in the first 11 months of the current
Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2022-February 19, 2023), as compared to the
same period of time in the past year, a provincial official announced.

Alireza Sadeq, the director of poultry affairs of the
province’s Agriculture Department, said that 3,179 tons of honey were produced
from the bee colonies of the province in 11 months of this year.

“According to statistics, we have 2,282 apiaries in the
province, which is 2.4 percent of the total number of apiaries in the country”,
the official stated, according to Tehran Times.

As stated by the chairman of the Animal Science Research
Institute of Iran (ASRI), Iran ranks third in the world in the number of
apiaries.

Mokhtar Mohajer also said that Iran's rank in honey
production is changing and moving between fourth and sixth place in the world.

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.

Mohajer said, “According to the Seventh National Development
Plan (2022-2026), 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 112,000 tons of honey, 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.

Currently, there are about 11.8 million bee colonies in
109,759 apiaries in the country, he added.