The export of honey in Camagüey province reported at the end of the first quarter an income of more than eight million dollars (USD), higher than the four million 905,600 USD planned for that period.

Of the 102.2 tons (t) planned, 170.9 t were commercialized in the international market, Maira Romero Guerra, analyst of the Direction Post of the delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) in the territory, informed the Cuban News Agency.
With the production of 213.6 tons (t) of bee honey in those three months, the Camagüey Beekeeping Base Business Unit (UEB) registers a compliance of 167 percent of what was planned and grows seven percent compared to the same period of the previous year.

Among the causes that facilitated this result are the favorable weather conditions, and the motivation for the increase in the price of this product, which used to be paid at more than 17,000 pesos per ton and currently rose to 35,200 pesos, explained to ACN Omelio Barba Alonso, director of the aforementioned entity.

He also highlighted the work of Camagüey’s beekeepers in the careful attention to the 17,596 hives that are active in the territory, while the plans for the production of derivatives such as propolis and wax are being fulfilled and increased.

Currently, bee honey is sold to the population in a point of sale located in the Market of the central Cisneros Street, in this city, and in fairs carried out in the municipalities with great acceptance due to its nutritional and medicinal properties, although most of the production is destined for exportation.

Barba Alonso said that the product obtained in Camagüey is sent to the processing plants located in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus and Santiago de Cuba.

For this year, the UEB Apícola Camagüey expects to exceed its production plan set at 830.5 tons of honey with the commitment to promote the food development program, which has the approval and will of the beekeepers of this demarcation, whose production record was achieved in 1982 with 1,080 tons.