Honey production expected to increase in the next few years

Honey production is expected to increase in the country in the next few years.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture there are about 10,000 bee hives producing more than 200 tonnes of honey annually and production will continue to increase.

Animal Heath and Production Division representative Tomasi Tunabuna says there have been a lot of development programmes planned for the next few years such as artificial insemination of queen bees, making of new boxes and training of more farmers.

Tunabuna says that apiculture industry has huge potential in Fiji and the interest among the people is continuously increasing.

He stresses that there are also plans to rehabilitate those farmers who had lost their bee hives during Tropical Cyclone Winston so that production can soon normalise.

Tunabuna adds that the industry is fully equipped with 1,000 competent farmers.

Meanwhile, the government has allocated $300,000 for bee farming in the 2017-2018 national budget.