Overproduction and cheap imports from non-EU countries are driving Lithuanian beekeepers into bankruptcy. The government is rejecting their call for direct payments.
Back in spring, Lithuanian beekeepers feared that drought would kill this year’s harvest, but it is so plentiful that they struggle to store all the honey.
Tomas Jasiukėnas, who runs an apiary in the Biržai region, says he has taken 100 kilograms of honey out of each of his hives this year. He keeps some 150 hives, so he has tons of honey and no buyers. At best, he says, big processors are offering half the price of last year.
“This year they offered 1.6 euro per kilogram. My brother and I have discussed it and decided that we’re not going to sell, we will keep it. But you know, we need something to live on. We do it for a living, we don’t have any extra jobs,” complains Jasiukėnas.
Smaller beekeepers try to sell their products at farmers’ markets. Linas Katilius, head of the Pakruojis District Beekeepers’ Association, says that honey is now sold at 5 euros per kilogram. It is almost half the price it was at the beginning of June.
Beekeeping expert Tautvydas Vaičiūnas says that the honey crisis is being felt across Europe due to overproduction.
“After the Covid-19 pandemic, consumption of bee products decreased. Imports from non-EU countries have also increased: China, Argentina and Turkey in particular. Imports from Ukraine are also high. I may add that there is a considerable amount of adulteration of honey from these major exporting countries,” notes Valčiūnas.
Beekeepers are looking for more support and assistance from the government and are asking for direct payments. Beekeeper Jasiukėnas says that if these are not forthcoming, some apiaries will go out of business.
“We would like to see more attention to beekeeping from the EU, from the Ministry of Agriculture, to protect the market, to prevent imports from third countries. [...] The second thing is that there is not a lot of support for beekeepers,” he says.
The support that there is, he adds, is aimed at helping build new beehives and expand production, but that is not the problem at the moment. “There could be some kind of payment per hive. At least 10-20 euros per hive,” says Jasiukėnas.
Vytautas Abukauskas, deputy minister of agriculture, says there will be no direct payments, however.
“Nowhere in Europe do they speak about support for beekeepers, at least to my knowledge,” he says. “Beekeepers get a special support for feeding bees during the winter, where every year we allocate a little more than half a million [euros] for the purchase of sugar or syrup.”
According to beekeeping expert Vaičiūnas, apiaries create far more value than just honey, notably pollination. If beekeeping farms are drastically reduced, other farmers will feel the consequences.
“Bee products are only 20 percent of the value created by bees. If bee populations decline, not only beekeepers would feel the impact, but other sectors of the economy too,” he stresses.
According to the Beekeepers’ Association, the number of bee farms has nearly doubled in the last few years. Today, there are as many as 11,000 beekeepers and around 220,000 bee colonies. Most apiaries are small family farms.
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