Amir Ishemgulov: At least six thousand tons of honey will be manufactured in Bashkortostan

The drought heavily struck all branches of agriculture this year. The Bashkir bee-keepers also face serious problems. The shortage of moisture affected the wild grasses and flowers, which brought 30% of all Republican honey reserves. The number of the nectariferous plants in Bashkortostan came down and in May and June the bee-keepers had even to feed the bees with the sugar syrup.

“In 2010 we receive the main share of our honey from lime-trees” – the general director of the Bashkir scientific-research center for bee-keeping and apitherapy Amir Ishemgulov says – “The lime-trees form 75% of the honey reserves in the Republic. Our honey potential is rather high – about 545 thousand tons per year but the bees are able to receive only 175 thousand tons”.

Amir Ishemgulov told that in 2010 the lime-trees began blossoming two week earlier and this process was running rather unevenly – in different regions the terms of blossoming were different too. Well-qualified bee-keepers have taken the advantage of it, moving their bee-gardens from one region to another. So the specialists predict the honey harvest at the last year level – six thousand tons of honey as minimum.