BEE WORK

Rarely does a complete Azerbaijani family breakfast not include honey - as we all know, it is not only a delicious food, but also an excellent natural medicine. But we also know that getting one's hands on real honey at a reasonable price was once not that easy - and even today the market is so full of fakes that the real thing remains a pricydelicacy. It is worth pointing out, however, that beekeeping in Azerbaijan has been developing in recent years, and there are already a good number of smoothly-operating farms. However, many problems need to be solved if production is to be placed on a solid commercial footing and honey turned into a significant export. 

Poor organization

Not too long agoAzerbaijan's beekeeping was critically unstable: by the endof last century the country's apiarieshad decreased by half. Most farmswere destroyed in the combat zones of Nagornyy Karabakh. During agrarian reforms tenbee farms were liquidated, and allthe apiaries from collective farms went into the hands of amateur entrepreneurs. In these years infrastructure serving beekeeping suffered as well, particularly the veterinary service. Many beginning beekeepers could not diagnose and treat bee diseases themselves. The systematic delivery of medicines for bees was disrupted, which still causes problems for the field today. Ten years ago Azerbaijan's provincial regions had 3500 beekeepers and 100,000 colonies of bees. In 2009 the Milli Maclis [parliament] adopted a law of the Azerbaijani Republic entitled "On Beekeeping", widening the frontiers of cooperation with foreign bodies and international organizations. 

According to figures from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Agriculture, in 2013 2,500 tonnes of honey were produced by 240,000 colonies of bees. Beekeeping had become an important branch of agriculture in most regions of the country, especially so in regions like Astara, Gadabay, Daskasan, and Zaqatala. Experts believe that existing resources could be brought up to 500,000 bee colonies, with honey production reaching 5,000 tonnes. Not all, however, are of this opinion.

"Farms have limited food supplies for the bees, and the beekeepers themselves are poorly organized, so it's too early to talk about industrial production of honey," said Azerbaijani Beekeepers Association head Elxan Alakbarov. According to him, many of those who practice bortnichestvo (a very simple form of beekeeping in which bees are kept in the hollows of trees) are poorly-qualified and misuse their limited forage base, often gathering their honey in one area. "This is why the honey yields are so small. Educational centres need to be set up in provincial regions, as well as apiary facilities. Another problem is that we still haven't caught up with modern ways of selling honey," the specialist remarked. 

It needs to be said that quality analysis for honey is not cheap, because the reagents for it are very expensive,and entering foreign markets requires expert analysis. That is why today the task is, first of all, to develop pedigreed beekeeping. It is very important that many nurseries for the breeding of queen bees be set up. The beekeepers' association has a chance to actively seek entrepreneurship grants. Easy-term lending and the leasing or donation of essential equipment would also greatly help the development of bee farms. 

Diseases and selection

There is another, no less important problem - about forty per cent of the bees in the country's farms are sick. "They are damaged by many peculiar diseases that were once easily controlled," says Ministry of Agriculture veterinary expert Mazahir Osmanov. "Pests such as moths, wasps, mice, and bears pose a big problem for the apiaries."

Nor did Azerbaijan escape the global problem of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Experts say that the scale of the problem is truly threatening, with even the healthiest colonies dying. Geographically CCDoccurs worldwide, ranging from the United States to China, where in 2008-2009 the bee population was so depleted that farmers pollinated their crops manually. Europe also suffered a mass die-off with similar symptoms. 

In the past five years the mass die-out of bee colonies in Azerbaijan has occurred in all seasons, striking provincial regions in waves. According to the observations of specialists, in the spring and summer seasons of 2007-201125-60 per cent of bees died each year in the low-lying region of the north-eastern Greater Caucasus. In the spring, when plants that contribute to bees' honey-production bloom, 20-25 per cent of bees died in the eastern spurs of theGreater Caucasusand southern Azerbaijan. If the situation does not improve, there is a risk of losing the beekeeping industry in the next few years… Solving this problem is in the meantime impossible, for the simple reason that Azerbaijan has no state programs to track or analyse the situation, much less improve it. 

Besides that, it iswellknown thatpedigreed beesadapted to the local climate and honey-producing floraare one of the main conditions of establishing a profitable and smoothly-running beekeeping business in any country. Experts say that unproductive mixed-breed bees are used in Azerbaijan. This is probably the most difficult problem to solve. Over the past twenty to twenty-five years Azerbaijan has lacked monitoring on the import and acclimatization of various breeds of bees. Heads of farms have accidentally or deliberately imported bees from countries in the CIS and from further abroad. 

"Pedigree work with beekeeping in Azerbaijan is mainly carried out by private farms," says Samil Quliyev, head of the Azerbaijani Union of Beekeepers. "That in no way meets the high standards of pedigree and selection work. So-called private individuals are not that reliable. Today they're working, but tomorrow they might close down the farm and do something else.Pedigree workshould be undertaken by enterprises on the state level. They should have apiary gene pools so as to effectively carry out pedigree work".

Other experts believe that one can find bees from two or even three strains or populations in one apiary. At some apiaries new breeds, introduced in recent years from nurseries in Russia, America, Turkey, Austria, and Germany, undergo acclimatization. As a result chaos reigns in Azerbaijani beekeeping - bees are not only losing their external identifying marks, but are also showing decreased fertility and lowered honey production.At the same Quliyev reports that the issue is already drawing interest on the national level, and it should be resolved in the near future. 

Price range

What about the traditional trade market for beekeepers, which as part of the law "On Beekeeping" is being organized in Baku? Will this action be effective in developing the industry?

For starters, beekeepers from forty regions of Azerbaijan, the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic, and Kyrgyzstan took part in the last market. They brought with them 190 tonnes of honey,of which 500 kg wasflower pollen, 200 kgwas bee pollen, 150 kgwas propolis,5 kgwasroyal jelly, and so on.

After passing through quality control, 438 beekeepers offering a wide assortment of honey were allowed to exhibit. Eight beekeepers were not allowed into the market due to the poor quality of their goods, while 3.5 tonnes of inferior honey was kept from being sold. It needs to be said that over the years beekeepers have gone through fifteen addresses. There is not yet a permanent place for beekeepers to sell their products in the capital or the provinces. As a rule, they sell their honey at shopping markets, pharmacies, sometimes at marketplacesand supermarkets. Bee-keepers delivered their goods to the exhibition in three-litre and kilogramme-sized glass jars, cans, buckets, wooden containers - they did not have "company" containers, which, naturally, lowered the commercial appearance of Azerbaijani honey. The Azerbaijani Minister of Agriculture Heydar Asadovvisited the exhibition and declared that there were unrestricted prices on production. Those prices varied from 15 to 35 manats per kilogramme. The high prices of honey products, as stated earlier, are a cause of low buying power. Having analysed on an expert and scientific level the objective and subjective factors affecting the cost of the products, taking into account their quality, experts or representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture could come forward with recommendations for beekeepers on lowering their prices or explain to consumers the benefits of expensive honey as opposed to cheaper varieties. 

In a word, in order to solve beekeepers' problems, organizers of honey production are in great need of additional state support and coordination for the industry. In the end the country might gain an important new thread in the tapestry of its exports.

HISTORY

As far back as the fourth century bortnichestvo was widespread within Azerbaijan. Bortnichestvo, the gathering of honey from tree hollows, the so-called "hunt for honey", was joined in the 18th century by domesticated, apiary-based beekeeping. The birthplaces of this ancient pursuit were held to be Quba-Xacmaz, Saki-Zaqatala, Samaxi, Lankaran-Astara, Kalbacar-Qubadli, Nagornyy Karabakh, and Naxcivanregions, which boasted rich honey-producing lands and a favourable climate. 

Several of Azerbaijan's regions have names related to ancient beekeeping: Balli-qaya, Ari-tapa, Arisu, Malham(a balm made from honey and wax) and many others.  

Azerbaijan is the homeland of the world-famous Grey Caucasian Mountain Honeybee, which gave life to such well-known and economically-important populations of honeybees as the Qabaxtapa, Sahdag, and Nuxa varieties. This breed of bee begins to fly at only six degrees Celsius and possesses a very long proboscis that allows it to gather nectar from plants, such as the clover, which are inaccessible to other insects. 

Azerbaijan's favourable weather and climate contributed to the development of agriculture and beekeeping. Beekeeping underwent rapid growth in the 1970s and 1980s, when about 10,000 people were employed in the industry, and large apiaries were maintained by most collective farms. There were from 300,000 to 450,000 bee colonies, ten state farms specializing in beekeeping, and a Soviet Union-wide bee-breeding centre in Lankaran.