This year, plant growers in the South were faced with a shortage of bee colonies for pollinating crops, which negatively affected farm yields. Boris Ostretsov, Chairman of the Representative Office of Industrial Beekeepers of Russia in the Krasnodar Territory, spoke about this in an interview with RBC TV South.
“There are not enough bee colonies specifically for pollinating gardens, sunflowers, and partly rapeseed. There was a big shortage this year. <…> If the sunflower is oilseed, there is an increase in yield by 20% (from the presence of an apiary – editor’s note of RBC TV South),” said Ostretsov.
The speaker noted that a similar problem is observed both in Kuban and in the Stavropol Territory. Under current conditions, farms are trying to lure apiaries from neighboring regions, and this trend will continue in the future.
“This problem also has another side to the coin: if only pollination is carried out, the apiary is unprofitable. For this reason, no one will create an apiary or go for pollination. <…> For farmers, those who produce seeds, those with gardens, I think it will be more difficult for them. I think they will try to lure apiaries from other regions at a price,” added Ostretsov.
According to the website of the Department of Information Policy of the Krasnodar Territory, over 2 thousand business entities are employed in the beekeeping sub-sector of the region, the annual production of honey in the region is 3.4 thousand tons. Such data was announced in April by the Vice-Governor of Kuban Andrey Korobka as part of an interregional round table in Krasnodar.