“I have around 300 bees and they produced around 200 kilograms of honey while it was supposed to be more than a tons of honey, and it has been around 5 years that I have not seen this low amount of honey production,” Jabar Nabi, a beekeeper in Erbil province's Balakayati area, told Rudaw’s Andam Jabar on Monday.
Honey is harvested around early August but a shortage of honey has delayed the process this year.
Aref Sherwani, president of the Kurdistan Beekeepers Network, said that honey production this year has halved in Duhok and Sulaimani provinces, blaming sudden rainfall as the primary factor.
“This year, production has decreased, by less than a half, and according to preliminary data, honey production has decreased by 50 percent in Duhok and Sulaimani provinces,” he told Rudaw on Monday. “After the months of May and June, there were showers of rain that caused the bees to not produce honey.”
There were 700,000 bees in 2022, but this year the number has almost doubled according to the Kurdistan Beekeepers Network. Kurdistan's honey production peaked at its highest level of 1,000 tons for the first time in 2021 while it dropped by 800 tons in 2022, and this year it is expected to drop by an additional 350 tons.
The Kurdistan Region’s honey sells for around 30,000-150,000 Iraqi dinars ($25-$125) per kilo, depending on its type and purity.
