UAE and Saudi honey makers are committed to local bees and production as authorities announced progress to celebrate World Bee Day on May 20.
The UAE’s Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Emirati beekeepers by providing high-quality queen bees of the local Emirati honey bee breed.
Last March, ADAFSA bred and produced 2,693 queen bees from the ninth generation of Emirati honey bee queens.
UAE and Saudi recognise World Bee Day
These efforts are part of the authority’s ongoing commitment to developing the Emirati honey bee breed, producing high-quality honey, and reducing dependence on imported bee colonies.
ADAFSA has continued its distribution efforts, providing 2,283 ninth-generation queens to local beekeepers, and breeding activities are ongoing.
The target is to produce 3,000 queens during the spring breeding season (March to mid-May 2024) and an additional 2,300 queens during the autumn breeding season (October to mid-November 2024).
This will result in a total production of 5,300 queens from the ninth generation of Emirati honey bee queens.
The authority indicated that 13,217 queens from eight generations of Emirati honey bees were produced from 2016 to 2023, of which 10,703 queens were distributed to beekeepers across the country.
To promote local honey globally, the authority organised the Al Wathba Honey Festival in Abu Dhabi from 26th January to 8th February 2024. Held in conjunction with the Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Agricultural Excellence Award, the festival was attended by 60 beekeepers and companies involved in honey production. It included various honey competitions and valuable prizes for participants.
The authority has ambitious projects in the pipeline, including a project to monitor pests and diseases affecting honey bee colonies in the country.
The authority aims to develop a management programme to safeguard honey bee populations and ensure the sustainability of beekeeping in the UAE.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Sustainable Agricultural Rural Development Program, Reef Saudi, has announced significant achievements in supporting the honey sector.
Since 2020, the program has provided a total of SR140m ($37m) in support to the sector, benefiting approximately 10,584 individuals across all regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The regions of Asir, Hail, Makkah, and Al-Baha have been among the primary beneficiaries of this support.
On World Bee Day, the program revealed that the Kingdom’s honey production in the previous year reached 3,120 tons, marking a 41 per cent increase from 2021.
The program aims to raise production to 7,500 tons annually by 2026, demonstrating its commitment to achieving self-sufficiency in honey production.
The program has also expressed support for various essential projects in the honey sector, including the establishment of queen bee breeding and package production stations in areas such as Hail, Najran, Jazan, Madinah, Tabuk, and Taif.
Additionally, it has supplied three mobile laboratories for examining and diagnosing bee diseases and pests in quarantine stations, along with four mobile clinics equipped for this purpose (Phase 2).
Moreover, the program has provided modern beekeeping tools to promote advanced techniques among beekeepers.
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