India's honey production up by 2 times in 10 years

A new report by the National Bee Board (via Indian Express) says that India has increased its production of honey by over 2 times in the last 10 years and exports by 207 per cent in the same time period.

The report says that India's honey production was 52,000 metric tonnes in 2005-2006, while the production stood at 1.05 lakh metric tonnes in 2017-2018. This shows an increase of over 2 times.

The report says that India has as many as 35 lakh bee colonies, a greater than 5x increase from 2005-2006, and the country currently has over 9000 people registered in the apiary business.

With the per capita consumption of honey in India being at a low 50 grams per year, the country exports over 50 per cent of its honey production to various countries. According to the National Bee Board data, Germany, UK, France, US, Japan, Italy and Spain are India's main export markets.

To facilitate the growing apiary business in India, the government plans to set up an Integrated Bee Development Centre in every state in India. Currently, over half the states and UTs in the country have an IBDC.

However, the apiary business is threatened by invading bee-eaters from the Himalayas, who have migrated south owing to severe cold.