Brussels, 28/08/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has no plans to change the list of eligible measures for apiculture under regulation 1234/2007 establishing a common organisation of agricultural markets. It explains this in a report published on 16 August on the implementation of the measures for the apiculture sector.
However, the Commission will propose to modify the implementing regulation 917/2004 in order to guarantee that the apiculture measures can be applied and financed for the whole year and to improve their management. In addition, the Commission will strive to bring about better coordination between the national applied research projects and the research projects of the Union, “in order to optimise the use of their results and to improve their dissemination to the beekeeping sector”. Lastly, the Commission will take steps to improve the efficiency of the existing measures by looking for “potential synergies” between the agriculture measures and rural development programmes. These efforts could include rural development measures, such as support for young beekeepers in setting up and modernisation of holdings, as well as the use of agro-environmental measures to increase the availability of melliferous plants for honey bees.
Production. In 2011, world honey production was 1,636,000 tonnes, according to the FAO. Production has been increasing slowly but regularly in the last 10 years, with two exceptions, in 2007 and 2009. China is the largest honey producer with 446,000 tonnes, accounting for 27.3% of the world total, followed by the European Union with 217,000 tonnes (13.3%). The other main honey producers are Turkey, with a steady output increase, Ukraine and the United States.
The European market. According to Eurostat, honey production in the European Union stood at 217,366 tonnes in 2011. EU production has increased slightly in the last 10 years, with negative and positive annual variations depending on weather conditions. Most of the honey produced in the European Union is sold directly to consumers by beekeepers, an observation which is also related to the largely non-professional nature of beekeeping in most of the member states.
The European Union is a net importer of honey, as EU production meets only 61.6% of its consumption. The level of consumption has been quite stable over the years, with an average of around 0.70 kg/head. The three main honey producers in the Union are Spain, Germany and Romania with a respective output in 2011 of 34,000, 25,831 and 24,127 tonnes. Other important producing member states are Hungary (19,800 tonnes), France (16,000 tonnes), Greece (14,300 tonnes) and Poland (13,369 tonnes). EU imports of honey have ranged between 120,000 and 150,000 tonnes since 2000. In 2012, the EU imported 149,248 tonnes of honey, mainly from China with 63,961 tonnes (43% of the total), followed by Argentina (22,344 tonnes). The share of Chinese imports has increased constantly since 2008 due to very low prices while, in parallel, the share of Argentinian imports decreased. Mexico is the third-largest supplier, with 21,249 tonnes, and Ukraine the fourth largest, with 8,949 tonnes. Germany is the main importing member state with more than one third of the total in 2012. Germany and Spain are the main European exporters; these two member states alone account for more than half of EU exports.
Census of beehives and beekeepers. The total number of beekeepers in the Union in 2010 was 506,038, of whom only 5% (26,318) were considered to be professional beekeepers (over 150 hives). In 2010, the total number of hives in the EU was some 14 million (13,985,091), of which around 6 million (5,659,551) belonged to professional beekeepers, who therefore had 40% of hives. It should be noted that, since there is no legal obligation at EU level to register beehives, the collection of data on the total number of hives is not harmonised between the member states and can lack precision. The number of hives in the EU increased by 3% (382,372) in 2010 compared to the 2007 census. According to beekeepers, this increase is necessary in order to compensate for bee mortality. However, it also involved an increase of honey production equivalent to 6% in the same period.
The five member states with the highest number of hives are: Spain (19.3%), Greece (11.8%), France (10.5%), Romania (10%) and Italy (8.8%). However, countries with higher numbers of hives are not always the countries with higher honey production. This can be explained by environmental differences (climate, nectar quantities, density of bee colonies, etc) as well as by the lack of a harmonised method at EU level to monitor the number of hives, which leaves dramatic differences in yield per hive between member states (between 9 and 51 kg in 2010 in the European Union).
Allocation of expenditure. In line with Article 108 of the single CMO Regulation, the Union provides part-financing for the agriculture programmes, equivalent to 50% of the expenditure borne by the member states.
It should be noted that the Union annual funds dedicated to the agriculture sector have increased since 2007 in order to take account of the rising number of beehives and the growing needs of the agriculture sector. In 2011, the budget rose to €32 million a year. In 2011, six member states (Germany, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Greece and Sweden) forecast expenditures below their respective budget in function of the number of hives. The corresponding amount of EU funds was redistributed among the rest of the member states. In 2011, the five member states with the largest number of hives got a combined allocation of 55% of the available European budget. The member states with the largest number of hives are therefore the largest users of the programme.
Execution of the budget. The overall usage rates in the 27 member states are very high (93% in 2010, 89% in 2011 and 89% in 2012). In 2010 and 2011, the main beneficiaries [Spain (93%, 84%), Greece (97%, 92%), France (90%, 88%), Italy (96%, 92%) and Romania (100%, 85%)] were very efficient in their use of the budgets. This was also the case in 2012 [Greece (97%), France (92%), Italy (93%) and Romania (98%)], with the exception of Spain, where only 69% of the budget was used.
Expenses incurred by type of action. For the period 2010-2012, the two most widely supported measures were control of varroasis and technical assistance. Expenses for these two measures were systematically the largest and have been relatively stable over the successive programmes, accounting on average for 27-30% for the control of varroasis and 24-28% for technical assistance. Measures designed to ensure rationalisation of transhumance continue to be the third most commonly supported, accounting for 16-20% of expenditure. Hive restocking measures came in fourth place. Measures on applied research came in fifth place (4-6% of expenditure). France continues to be the member state allocating the largest budget to applied research, with approximately €1.4 million in 2012, representing more than half of the total sum allocated to this measure in the Union. For example, applied research measures were used in France to carry out a study on the exposure of honey bees to a neonicotinoid systemic pesticide.
Finally, expenditure for honey analysis is the least used by the member states and decreased. In 2010, this represented 6% of the expenditure, then fell to 4% in 2011 and 3% in 2012.
In 2012, the Commission asked an external consultant to perform an evaluation of the measures for the apiculture sector. The study, which was completed in July 2013, concluded that the national agriculture programmes had helped to stabilise honey production levels in the EU in a context of rising production costs, threats to bee survival and fierce international competition caused by imports of honey from third countries. The measures contributed to curbing the surge in production costs (in particular for varroa treatments and restocking of hives) and therefore limited the impact of these costs on the income of the beekeepers. Finally, the study stresses that the agriculture sector, the honey industry and the member states all agree that the national agriculture programmes are very useful in supporting the sector.
On 18 July, the management committee of the EU approved the release of €99.3 million to part-finance, along with the member states, support measures for beekeepers over the period 2014-2016 (see EUROPE 10892). This represents €33.1 million a year paid for out of the EU budget, compared to €32 million a year over the period 2011-2013. The increase can be explained solely by Croatia's accession to the European Union. (LC/transl.fl)