Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia

The first meeting of the Beekeeping Advisory Board was held at the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture. The meeting was chaired by the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Chairman of the Advisory Board, Levan Davitashvili.

At the session the Minister made an opening speech, he underlined endeavors and activities performed for the recognition of Georgian honey on EU market by the relevant agencies of the Ministry, including National Food Agency. Georgia is allowed to export honey to the EU market, we are going to take advantage of this opportunity and we work in various directions - Levan Davitashvili said.

These activities are planned to be implemented under the frame of the consolidated Ministry, considering the principles of sustainable management and ecological aspects. According to the Minister, participation in the international exhibitions is very important as it will further boost the popularization of Georgian beekeeping products.

Levan Davitashvili instructed relevant services to start preparatory works to introduce Georgian honey to the Montreal international exhibition and congress Apimondia, Canada by the year 2019.

The members of the Board discussed issues related to the honey production and export-import statistics, state control of honey and bee-keeping products, capacity of the laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture and future plans, support for primary and processing products under the frame of the cooperation, impacts of climate change on bee characteristics, protected areas and nature reserves, law on bee hive placement in forests, activities of the scientific research center, also plans for conducting trainings for beekeepers and all interested persons in the information and educational center.

At the meeting the participants noted, that Georgia records growing tendency of beekeeping and honey production. It’ s noteworthy, that today we have branded packed honey products on the domestic market. As for export, Japan takes the first place, 47% of exported Georgian honey goes to Japan. Export is carried out in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other countries.