The drought puts the bees in check and reduces the honey harvest by 50%

The beekeeping crisis It is one more symptom of the advance of the climate crisis in Spain. This year, for example, droughts and extreme summer heat have drying many plants and have prevented many others from flourishing. The lack of rain has reduced the presence of ponds. And in the absence of flowers and water, many insects have been exposed to an unprecedented lack of food. Weather extremes (such as sudden winter freezes or high summer temperatures) have also disrupted the breeding seasonhave reduced the breeding of these insects and have substantially reduced the population of bees that go into hibernation.

“We are facing a cumulative problem. This year has been especially tragic, but in a certain way the sensation is that it rains on wet”, explains the biologist Gerard Box, director of the UABee project at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. According to this expert, the progress of the climate crisis exposes bees to more and more threats. In the wild species a population loss of 10% per year is observed. In the case of beekeeping bees, in the words of Caja, “until now the species has withstood the downpour for tireless work of beekeepersnot because they have it easier”.

“Disastrous year” for honey

After a year of climatic extremes, beekeepers warn of the critical situation of the hives of honey bees (Apis mellifera). According to the first balance, this year the honey harvest has been reduced between 40 and 50% in Spain. In Valencia, for example, there is already talk of “disastrous year”. The intense rains of last spring damaged the rosemary plantations and have caused losses of 90% of the harvest of this honey. extreme summer heat severely affected thyme and, in turn, has caused the collection of this honey to decrease by up to 70% compared to a normal year.

“We are dragging a tragic situation. It is the third consecutive year that we suffer a significant decrease in a harvest. We have gone from collecting between 20 and 25 kilos of honey per hive to only 10″, he explains Peter Loscertales, representative of the beekeeping sector of the Coordinator of the Organization of Farmers and Ranchers (COAG). The beekeeper also highlights the “brutal impact” of the rising production costs of honey and calls for aid for the sector. “This year the situation is critical,” he stresses.

The honey crisis extends throughout practically the entire Spanish territory. In Andalusia, one of the autonomous communities most affected by droughts, “there are points where practically nothing has been harvested“, Explain Antonio Vazquez, owner of a beekeeping farm in Malaga. In Castilla la Mancha, the harvest has been “absolutely disastrous“, affirms the beekeeper José Luis Delgado Laguna. “The heat shocks of May made the forecasts of gutter honey non-existent and the repeated summer heat waves have even affected the crops that used to be more generous”, explains the beekeeper.

While the production of national honey faces a historical crisis, the imports of this product break records. Only in the first half of the year, Spain has bought more than 20,240 tons of honey from foreign producers: some 4,200 tons more than the same half of the previous year. At this time, according to the records, the countries that contribute the most honey are Chinawith more than 4,850 tons imported so far this year, and Portugal, with more than 3,640 tons.

ecological problem

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The decline in Spanish honey production is only the tip of the iceberg of a much larger problem. “If the bees disappear, the entire ecosystem is in danger“, warns Gerard Box, as a researcher dedicated to the study of these insects. “Pollinators are the pillar of ecosystems. Without bees there is no pollination. And without pollination there are no flowers, no plants and no food. And from there we we expose to a series of cascading damagesays the scientist.

Scientists and beekeepers ask strengthen policies to care for bees and, in turn, more protection for the professionals who care for these animals. “Bees are a mainstay for crops. Without the presence of these pollinators, the continuity of many foods is in danger. It is not a problem that affects only insects. If the bees disappear, the problem belongs to everyone”, says Loscertales forcefully.