Beekeeping in Greece: problems and proposals

Vasilis Ntouras, PresidentFederation of Greek Beekeepers Associations OMSE

My job and my co-workers in the field

In OMSE’s office

With and

Greek beekeeping in numbers

• 1.500.000 bee colonies• 17.000 beekeepers• 6000 professionals (>150

colonies)• ~20.000 tons of

honey/year• ~15 kgr/colony /year• 12 colonies/km2

• 4 transportations per year on average

• Honey production cost is high

• Honey yield per colony and year is low

• Yet, the quality of Greek Honey is unique

Beekeeping in Greece has certain very specific characteristics

• Mountainous land• Hot-dry climate• Farming area is ~ 28% of

the land• GMO free• High biodiversity ~6500 plant taxa• Colonies have to be

moved a lot (transhumance)

• Low production per hive 15 kgr of honey/colony/year

Greece-usually!- has a very small percentage of bee losses (~10%)

Three reasons:Small fraction of bee foraging in crops/foraging in

natural ecosystems (small exposure to pesticides)Rich biodiversity and a long productive period

(winters are short)The Greek beekeeper’s mentality: lost colonies

must be replaced ASAP

Causes of bee losses in Greece

• Climate change – extreme weather phenomena become frequent (scorchers, drought, floods, strong winds)

• Loss of bee foraging habitat (forest fires, over-grazing, tourism,urbanization)

• Pesticides and particularly neonicotinoids

Bees that fed on crops where neonicotinoids were used, exhibit some 35-50% losses

in the following 8-month period.Colony defense collapses and it becomes vulnerable to

several pathogens, the way an AIDS patient is…

Cotton honey: a great paradigm

• Before neonicotinoids, which are systemic, sprayings in cotton killed a lot of forager bees

• Still the outcome was a positive one as the colony managed to gather about 30 kgr of honey and replace the foragers lost

• Nowadays, after the massive losses the beekeepers have suffered from 2005 and on, the 3000 tons of cotton honey are history…

• By the way, cotton honey is a very tasty flower honey with great antibacterial and antioxidant properties!

In 2011 and 2012 more than 10.000 colonies died off in Attica and some islands, because of

sprayings on palm trees with neonicotinoid insecticides approved for red beatle control

The beekeeper replaces the bee colonies he has lost

Bee colony loss is translated into livestock loss and honey production loss and consequently

income loss for the beekeeper.

How long can beekeepers stay in business making up for the damage on their own ?

What is OMSE doing ?

How can we achieve a pollinator friendly agricultural model?

Political pressure through wide political and social alliances

• Greek Mps και MEPs• Greenpeace• Scientists –Scientific organisations• Consumer organisations• Farmers unions –Organic Farmers

unions• NGOs • Internet Campaigning

Communities (avaaz, change etc) Coordination with Europe’s

beekeepers (EPBA, CoEur)

Action for co-existence

In 2012-2013 we organised 3 events in 3 cities (Chania, Nafplion and Arta) to bring beekeepers

and orange growers together

What the Greek beekeepers ask:

Legal support in EU level for• Protection from pesticides • Protection from GMOs• Clear distinctions between locally produced

beekeeping products from imported ones posing as local

We propose:

The 'bee-friendly' label should be included in the EU legislation on agricultural product quality as a

quality term

We propose:

Direct aid to beekeepers from the 2nd pillar of the CAP for their

contribution to food production, to the environment and biodiversity

In countries like Greece where bees provide pollination, for the

most part, to non-cultivated plants and beekeepers pay additional costs for moving the bees (transhumance)

we request from the Community to include in the new CAP a

“pollination subsidy”

We propose:

The 3 –year apiculture programmes (Regulation EC 1234/07) should run on

a 7- year basis in harmony with the CAP

Our thanks

To the Green MEP’s for all their efforts to support the bees and European

beekeeping!

Thank youfor listening!