The renaissance of beekeeping in Poland
In the last few years, the number of beekeepers in Poland - both professional and amateur - has increased. The pandemic period had a great impact on this situation - Poles began to invest in plots outside large cities and look for rest there. Environmental awareness was also growing, and the topic of nature, including the role of bees in the ecosystem, was more common in the mainstream.
In Europe, the Czech Republic is a pheasant phenomenon - out of 10.7 million citizens (over 3 times less than Poland) there are 60,000 beekeepers.
Poland, like the whole of Central and Eastern Europe has huge beekeeping traditions, now these traditions are becoming additionally very trendy according to eco-environmental trends. Poles more and more often pay attention to what was planted in gardens, remembering about honey plants. Some figures on Polish beekeeping. In developed countries there are also new apiaries and beekeepers, but slowly. In Poland only in the last year, 7,000 appeared. new bees and honey enthusiasts.
In 2021, there are already 82,000 in Poland. beekeepers, a year earlier there were 75 thousand. A decade ago, there were 1.1 million bee colonies (a bee colony is from 20,000 to even 120,000 individuals. The number depends mainly on the season and the strength of the colony). Now it is even 1.75 million. According to experts - beekeeping is becoming fashionable in the world, people are looking for interesting and useful hobbies, and honey is simply very healthy (especially as an alternative to sugar). It is also related to the trend of caring for the planet. We do not notice bees on a daily basis, although they are of key importance to our ecosystem. Honey bee pollinates 80% of plants. As part of being eco, people just started breeding bees.
A new generation of beekeepers is growing in Poland. These are people usually aged 30-40, those who, in a pandemic, had nothing to do with themselves, could not or were afraid to go abroad, and decided to devote their free time to a new passion. Fashion came at a very good time, because young people will slowly displace aging beekeepers. Today, the average age of a Polish beekeeper here exceeds 60 years. Often it is passion and responsibility passed down from generation to generation, tradition wins. Polish honey, like Czech, Romanian or Slovak honey, is considered one of the best in the world. In this part of Europe, types of honey are also experimented with, beekeepers travel with their hives even several dozen kilometers, so that the bees have the opportunity to pollinate various plants and to obtain a full range of honey, in hardly any part of the world in an ordinary shop there is such a selection of honey.
Unfortunately, it should also be said that honey production is not an easy field. According to Copa-Cogeca, 2021 is another difficult season for the beekeeping sector, it was marked by a decline in production, estimated at 10-15% compared to 2020.
For the honey market, the necessary measures are in terms of the profitability of beekeeping and honey adulteration. It is also important to undertake a broader discussion on the viability of beekeeping, especially taking into account climate change and the promotion of biodiversity.
Aid for beekeepers has been announced in the EU.