Honey production halves in Romania as rapeseed, sunflower crops affected by dry spell

Romania will see its honey production dropping this year because of the drought, down to half the production level registered in 2011, according to Ioan Fetea, president of the Beekeepers Association in Romania, quoted by Agerpres.

The production will stay at some 12,000 tonnes of honey this year. The diminishing came as drought affected the rape seed, sun flower crops and the acacia trees. For honey made of rape seed, the production will only be one tenth of last year's, while acacia honey, around a third of last year's level. Things are slightly better for sunflower honey, with a rate of 60 percent of last year's production level. Linden tree based honey will be at 70 percent of last year's. The price of honey is expected to go up on the internal market, even though around half of what the country produces every year goes to export. Romania's beekeepers have EU and national funding worth some EUR 6 million for this year, even through they have filed requests for some EUR 25 million. Romania ranks seventh in Europe, with around 1.3 million bee families and an average honey production of 20,000 tonnes a year. editor@romania-insider.com