‘SA beekeepers struggling to meet demand for honey’

The KwaZulu-Natal Bee Farmers’ Association Chairperson Roland Moore says South African beekeepers are struggling to meet the local demand for honey.

However, an International Union for Nature Conservation study shows that threats to insects like bees have increased by almost two thirds in the past five years due to the use of pesticides and the loss of habitat.

A United Nations study has, however, noted that one of every three mouthfuls of food for human consumption depend on pollinators like bees.

Moore says, “The pollination has become quite a major business and is growing. Along the KZN coast, there are thousands of macadamia nut trees that are being planted and there have been estimates of something like a 100 000 bee hives are needed to pollinate those orchards. So, there’s a number of crops that are pollinated by bees. The reason for it is to grow the perfect fruit. It also increases the farmer’s yield,” he adds.

Honey theft

Beekeeper, Dieter Meyer says the biggest challenges they are facing are from people who break open hives to steal honey and sell it, as well as animals like badgers that feast on honey.

Meyer says, “It does cost bee farmers quite a lot of money to protect the hives. There is lot of research into technology. We’re currently busy testing technology in KZN to help protect your hives. There is concrete hives, I’ve heard of somebody who is making plastic hives. But the technology is expanding so quickly and rapidly in the world, that the technology is where a lot of the focus is going in terms of the beehives,” says Meyer.