Government program supports beekeeping in Georgia

The Government of Georgia has launched a new state program to support beekeepers boost production.

The new state program encourages the creation of honey cooperatives and aims to improve the material-technical base of agricultural beekeeping and to increase the quality and quantity of honey and other beekeeping products.

The first honey cooperative enterprise will soon be created in Georgia in which about 900,000 GEL will be invested, announced Georgia’s Ministry of Agriculture.

The new enterprise will be equipped with modern technologies in the primary production of honey and other beekeeping products.

In order to ensure high quality of produced honey all program-participant cooperatives will be obliged to follow the Honey Technical Regulations and to introduce traceability and Hazard analysis and critical control points or HACCP systems.

Meanwhile, for the purpose of boosting honey production, the state has been giving beehives to local beekeepers who are part of cooperatives.

Within the program, farmers pay 30 percent of the total cost of the hive while the remaining 70 percent is covered by the state.

So far, 164 cooperatives have received 13,931 bee hives; 28 cooperatives received 28 honey extractors and 27 cooperatives were given 61,400 litre capacity 713 tanks.
(Agenda.ge)