Local beekeepers want Brazilian support to boost apiculture industry

5th Caribbean beekeepers conference focuses on enhancing industry’s money-earning capacity
Local beekeepers are working with the Ministry of Agriculture to secure closer ties with the apiculture industry in Brazil in order to boost the technical capacity of the local industry, according to local beekeeping expert Linden Stewart.

According to Stewart, the collaborative effort involving local beekeepers in an effort to boost apiculture here is one of the “positive outcomes” of the Fifth Conference of Caribbean Bee Keepers held in Guyana last month.

Stewart, who operates Kingdom Apiary Products and Supplies Ltd, told Stabroek Business that what Guyana’s hosting of the regional beekeeping conference had done was “to create a greater regional awareness of the potential of the industry as a money-earner for Caribbean economies, as well as to focus national attention on the importance of the domestic beekeeping industry.”

Guyana became a member of the regional beekeepers’ association in 2002 and Stewart told Stabroek Business that the country was still “way behind” other Caribbean territories in terms of the development of the industry. “The irony is that we probably have the greatest potential of all of the countries in the region,” he added.

Stewart said that apart from the fact that the regional conference  had served as a catalyst for greater public and private sector attention to the potential of the industry, it also provided an opportunity for Guyana to benefit from the more advanced technology available elsewhere in the region.

Africanized bees in a Sweet Alloes tree in Guyana
Africanized bees in a Sweet Alloes tree in Guyana

According to Stewart the single biggest failing of the local beekeeping industry was its inability to secure the local market for honey. He said that Guyana imports more than 4000 gallons of honey annually for use both as a condiment and as a sweetner. The local beverage manufacturer Banks DIH Ltd is one of the largest importers of honey.

Meanwhile, Stewart told Stabroek Business that the collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and local beekeepers was very much in its infancy. “The Ministry of Agriculture is itself still learning about apiculture.  While we have many qualified agricultural scientists who have done studies in apiculture we do not have either the human or technical resources to build an apiculture industry,” he said. Stewart observed that the significance of the collaborative exercise was that the ministry had reached out to beekeepers. “With the Ministry of Agriculture on board we may now be in a position to do much more,” Stewart said. According to Stewart the ministry had become interested in being more involved  with the industry not only to support an increase in honey production but also because the pollination process was critical to the broader food production drive in Guyana.

Beekeepers from Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Grenada, St Vincent and Haiti attended the conference which also benefited from representation by a Brazilian bee-keeping expert. Stewart said that Brazil, one of the world’s largest producers of honey could play an invaluable role in helping to develop the local industry.