Syrian honey bee raising industry improving

The Syrian honey bees species are distinguished as the best in the world in producing the royal food, ability to survive Winter with the lowest amount of food, in addition to that the Syrian bees are superior to all foreign species in resisting the destitution of the pastures. The Syrian government support to the individual initiatives of the bee apiarists and associations led to increasing the bee hives to 601,979 in 2010 compared to 595,394 in 2009. Head of the Bees, Silk and Bumblebees in the Ministry of Agriculture, Qasim al-Boushi, told SANA that raising bees is concentrated in Damascus countryside, Idleb, Lattakia, Hama, Tartous, Aleppo, Homs and Daraa Provinces. He added that Syria's production of honey in 2010 reached 2,957 tons and 120 tons of the honey wax compared to 2,771 tons of honey and 117 tons of honey wax in 2009. Al-Boushi said that Syria imports several amounts of honey from the Arab countries which are members of the Great Arab Free Trade Area "GAFTA" according to medical and healthy conditions that are in line with the Syrian standards, while Syria exports limited amounts of the Syrian honey to the neighboring countries. He stressed the importance of the economic feasibility of bees as raising bees contributes to improving the production of the agricultural crops by 25-35 percent through their role in natural pollination. The number of the apiarists in Syria estimated at 20,000 as about 30,000 families work in this career. Al-Boushi pointed out to an integrated plan to improve the species of the Syrian bees through a program which aims at improving the characteristics of the Syrian bee, increasing its productivity of honey and reducing its diseases, in addition to the Ministry of Agriculture efforts to increase the bee raising centers, as it has opened 20 new centers.