‘This has been one of the worst years for beekeepers in the last three decades’
This year’s bad weather caused a dramatic fall in honey yields, one of the worst in recent years. Frost, drought, fires, floods – all four major disasters hit the Zadar area this year affecting the production of honey, reports eZadar on October 16, 2017.
The president of the Beekeepers Association ‘Dalmatinka’ Zlatko Elveđi, who lost his apiaries in this year’s terrible flood that hit Zadar, claims that this is one of the worst years for beekeepers in the last three decades.
Things went from bad to worse from May 2017: “According to the information from my fellow beekeepers, this year has by far been the worst year for the beekeeping industry in the last thirty years, nobody remembers such a terrible year. It has been pretty bad from the very beginning of the year, but this drought has been so devastating that there was no honey yield and no harvest and the bee colonies could not develop. Maybe the beekeepers elsewhere got off better, but Dalmatia was severely affected by this year’s bad weather,” says Zlatko Elveđi.
Bad weather also affected the raising and production of mated honey bee queens, of which the main prerequisite is plenty of food in nature. The beginning of spring saw some production of queens for beekeepers’ own needs, but sadly not any for sale.
“Millions of kunas in damages. During one of the recent years when the drought had affected Zadar County, even proclaiming natural disaster, the apiculture suffered severe damages which were estimated to around 42 million kunas, taking into account data collected from 300 beekeepers, including the production of honey, propolis, pollen, bee queens and colonies etc. I believe that this year the damages will certainly be higher than that, probably around 50 million kunas,” adds Elveđi.
Zlatko Elveđi had reported damage to his apiary but doubts that he will be compensated because the total damage from this year’s bad weather was enormous. As far as the Measure 5 is concerned and the financial support for up to 100 percent of the total eligible costs, Elveđi comments the following: “Yes, it has been mentioned that we need to apply for European funds, but nobody says anything about the fact that we need to finance and compensate for the damages by ourselves first, pay for it and then we can get a refund, without anyone asking whether we have enough money.”
Translated from eZadar
