Honey Prices Go Up by 20% in Bulgaria due to High Honeybee Death Rate

Price of honey in Bulgaria has gone up by 20% because of the high mortality rate of honeybees, which reaches 60% and even 100% this year. According to beekeepers, about a third of the products on the market do not have the necessary qualities because they are mixed with Ukrainian and Chinese honey.

Extremely high death rate in honeybee colonies has been recorded in the recent months across the country. The loss of bee families in Rousse, North of Bulgaria, on the Danube, is up to 100%. Beekeepers expected a significantly lower yield of bee products and the price of honey went up.

Beekeepers have already restored the destroyed population. Therefore, a new increase in honey prices is not expected, Ivan Kanev, a beekeeper, said.

The retail sales prices is between 8 and 13 BGN per kilogramme depending on the type of honey, he added.

Another problem is associated with the importation of honey from countries outside the European Union.

Nikolai Koumanov, President of the Federation of Bulgarian Beekeepers: The European Commission has allowed duty-free imports of Chinese and Ukrainian honey and this had an immediate influence. It is well-known that Bulgarian, Romanian and Serbian honey are the best in the world in terms of qualities. At home, the easiest way to find out whether honey is real or not is to take a spoonful and dissolve it in water. The slower it dissolves, the better its content is.

In the European Bee Week, experts in Brussels commented that 30% of the honey offered at the market does not have the necessary qualities.