SANTA CLARA, Cuba, (ACN) – With an estimated harvest of at least 10 tons, more than in 2021, the Basic Business Unit (UEB) Apicola Centro de Villa Clara expects to close its annual production of more than 900 tons of bee honey, destined for social consumption, the national network of pharmacies and exportation.
Roberto Rivas Lopez, a small producer told the Cuban News Agency that, despite the impact of the world economic crisis and especially the fuel deficit in the country, quarterly deliveries have been made as agreed, especially those classified as ecological, precisely because of their high price in the international market.
He also commented that the agreements with the project for the improvement of apiculture sponsored by the French Development Agency have favored the strengthening of the socialist state enterprise of the sector and have facilitated the establishment of contracts with non-state economic actors that contribute to optimize the activity.
Alexander Castro Aguilar, director of UEB, pointed out that there are seven breeding centers that guarantee the annual replacement of at least 20,300 queen bees (of the common European species Apis mellifera), an indispensable procedure to maintain high-efficiency standards both in the health of the hives and in the regular castration processes.
Currently, there is a growing movement of meliponiculturists advocating the domestication and exploitation of the so-called Cuban noble bee, which is not really native from Cuba and, unlike the Apis mellifera, does not sting because it lacks a stinger, explained Isabel Leon Manso, a local entrepreneur and member of the group of meliponiculturists of Santa Clara.
Although there is still a long way to go to reach its historical record (registered in 1983 with more than 1,130 tons of honey collected), Villa Clara has the endorsement of the Ecocert Certification Agency for the commercialization of organic honey and contributes – through the Cuban Apiculture Enterprise (Apicuba) – to the sale of products already legitimized in the market.
