SOFIA (Bulgaria), January 16 (SeeNews) – Romania has increased its honey production to 35,000 tonnes in 2015, from 20,000 tonnes in 2014, which makes the country the biggest honey producer in the EU, the European Commission said.
Bulgaria is the only EU member state from Southeast Europe, in which honey production dropped in 2015, as output fell to 9,300 tonnes, from 11,500 tonnes in 2014, the European Commission said in a report to the European Parliament and the Council posted on the Commission's website.
You can download the 2023 Agriculture industry in Southeast Europe report here
Croatia produced 11,500 tonnes of honey in 2015, while Slovenia did not produce any.
The EU, with its 268,000 tonnes produced in 2015, is the world’s second largest honey producer, after China. However, domestic output covers only 60% of the EU’s needs, which led to a total of 200,000 tonnes of honey imported in 2015, with half of these imports originating in China.
According to data from the 2014-2016 national apiculture programmes, there were a total of 15.7 million beehives in the EU, the Commission said.