With a production of around 250,000 tonnes/year, the EU is the second world producer of honey after China.
According to European Commission (EC) report on the implementation of national beekeeping programmes, Romania is the country with the highest honey production in the European Union.
Thus, Romania has produced 35,000 tonnes of honey in 2015, compared to just 20,000 tonnes in 2014. Spain is next with 32,200 tonnes and Hungary, with 30,700 tonnes.
“The EU supports bee keeping through national apiculture programmes intended to improve the general conditions for the production and marketing of honey and apiculture products in the EU. This includes measures like improving bee health or technical assistance to beekeepers among other things. It gives also an overview about the distribution of the total annual budget of EUR 33 million between the different Member States. The highest shares are used by Spain (16 percent), France (11 percent) and Romania (10 percent),” the report reads.
According to data provided in the 2014-2016 programmes, there were around 16 millions beehives in the EU. The five Member States with the largest numbers of beehives are mainly located in the South of the EU: Spain, France, Greece, Romania and Italy.
As regards the data provided in the 2017-2019 programmes, there were around 600 000 beekeepers in the Union. The number of EU beekeepers has been decreasing. Many beekeepers who leave the sector for reasons of age are not replaced by newcomers, EC points out.
Germany is one of the few Member States who managed to stop the decline in the number of beekeepers. The German Beekeepers’ Association prioritized a recruitement strategy of beekeepers and offered beginners’ courses which led to an increase in the number of active beekeepers. Part of these actions were funded by the measure “technical assistance” of the programmes.
In 2015, 96 percent of European beekeepers managed less than 150 beehives, the threshold until which an apiary is regarded as “non-professional”; only 4 percent of beekeepers in the EU had more than 150 beehives and could be classified as “professional” beekeepers. This threshold is, however, contested by some beekeeping associations that consider 40 hives as more appropriate.