Beekeepers in crisis, hives towards viale Trento

77 thousand hives

The calculations are quickly made: in Sardinia there are about 77,000 beehives and eucalyptus honey is one of the most coveted crops by island beekeepers. The loss means a productive damage of thousands and thousands of quintals of honey, it is estimated a damage that exceeds by far the 9 million euro for the missed harvest that will weigh enormously in the budget of all Sardinian beekeeping. The reference to the contingent damage, without mentioning all the factors that are undermining the production sector at the root, is summarized in a few data: with a regular production it is plausible to wait at least about 36 kg of honey from each hive, the average recorded this season. , on the other hand, it is only 12 kg, 24 less.

Severe losses

This is a very serious economic loss that risks adding to other factors, including the increases in many materials indispensable for running the companies, putting the island's productive activities on the pavement. «What lies ahead for professional beekeepers is an increasingly uncertain future. All this - argues the representative of the sector - forces us to reduce the number of hives or even meditate on abandonment by impoverishing the sector of experience and work skills obtained over decades. The increase in operating costs, then, has heavily hit a sector which, with the nomadism of the hives, is exposed to the increase in expensive gasoline ”.

Collapse risk

In the beekeeping sector of the island, which is also fundamental for the function of bees in the biological system, the risk is that of a real economic collapse. «10 years of climatic upheavals and the invasion of foreign honey were not enough. With this latest blow - says Francesco Caboni - the bases for the survival of professional beekeeping no longer exist. The high temperatures, the scarcity of rains and not least the deforestation caused by biomass plants, have contributed to drastically reduce the production of one of the island's excellences ».

J'accuse

In addition to the adverse weather conditions and the invasion of Chinese and other honey, the indifference of the institutions is added. And it is here that the j'accuse becomes tighter: "The beekeeping sector has been completely forgotten by the Region". The reference is to the fire last year that devastated forests and lush natural habitats for the production of honey: that many beekeepers have lost hundreds of hives during the fires and after receiving so many promises, they are still awaiting the announced aid. Nobody knows anything anymore. The Region did its utmost to send technicians to monitor the losses of beekeepers, but nothing happened one year later. One seriously wonders if there is a real will to intervene or was it just smoke and mirrors ».

Excluded from everything

The difficulties of the island's beekeeping sector are also linked to structural discrimination: the sector is one of the few that, despite its fundamental role for biodiversity, does not receive aid from the Community Agricultural Policy. In addition to injury, insult. Now, however, the bees, "workers and queens", for the first time in history, could "march" towards Viale Trento. Who knows that someone does not notice.