Rabat – Morocco’s honey production amounted to 7,500 tonnes in 2021, Moroccan government spokesperson Mustapha Baitas has said.
Speaking on Tuesday at the House of Councilors, the upper chamber of the Moroccan parliament, Baitas said the sector offers many job opportunities.
He made his remarks after he received a question on the phenomenon of bee colonies’ desertion of many provinces in Morocco.
Baitas said the Morocco Green Plan worked to organize and rationalize the functioning of the sectors as well as to boost production.
He renewed Morocco’s determination to double efforts to tackle the phenomenon of bee disappearances from several regions across the country.
Over the past few days, experts visited about 23,000 hives, monitoring and inspecting various regions across Morocco, he said.
Morocco’s National Food Safety Office (ONSSA) has also established a committee to carry out studies on bees’ desertion, Baitas noted, stressing that the latest laboratory analyses ruled out an epidemic of bee disease.
ONSSA’s field survey aims to determine the extent of the unprecedented phenomenon to identify its causes.
The phenomenon is also identified as “Colony Collapse Syndrome,” which is reported to regularly hit several countries around the world, including in Europe.
The food safety office said researchers attribute the disappearance of worker bees from a number of Moroccan provinces to several factors, including low rainfall and a decrease in the quantity and quality of food available for bees.
Morocco recently allocated a budget of MAD 130 million ($13.83 million) to implement a program consisting of a series of measures, including a national campaign to treat hives against diseases.
The measures also include the reconstruction of infected hives through the distribution of new bees populations and the tightening of research in the field.
