PESHAWAR: Not only honey produced in Pakistan is considered to be the best varieties in the global market but it also generates huge foreign exchange.

However, honey producers insist if the government provides them with processing and packing facilities, it would add value to the precious export item.

Officials at the Export Promotion Bureau while referring to the data complied by the Geneva-based International Trade Centre said 1,693 tons of honey valuing $8.799 million was exported from the country in 2013.

They said the honey exported in 2012 weighed 1,773 tons and its total value was $5.912 million.

Insist processing, packing will add value to precious export item

The officials said increase in the value was a positive sign for Pakistani exporters.

According to the centre, which monitors trade of all exported goods across the world, revealed that Saudi Arabia was major buyer of Pakistani honey and imported 1,120 tons of honey followed by the United Arab Emirates, which imported 213 tons in the same year. The data about domestic consumption of honey is not available.

High-quality honey is exported, while honey of inferior quality is consumed in the country for different purposes.

Beekeeping or apiculture sector is growing in the country, especially in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Apiculturists said berry honey produced in Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was considered best quality after Yemen in the world has great demand in Middle East. Karak which lies in high dry zone grow best quality of berry second after Yemen.

“There is no international standard packing facility in the country and traders have to transport honey in raw form to Jeddah for packing,” said Asadullah Khan, who has become a beekeeper two and a half decades ago. He exports honey to Saudi Arabia. Apiculturists are using traditional techniques for collecting honey.

Despite producing one of the best qualities honey and potential standard packing facilities do not exist in the country. Traders put honey in plastic canes and ship to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) for packing and marketing.

“Local traders are relying on businessmen in Saudi Arabia for packing and marketing as a result Pakistan is loosing foreign exchange every year,” Asadullah said.

He said domestic consumption was also increasing because honey was used for medicinal purposes. He said despite earning foreign exchange and potential this vital sector had been ignored.

Beekeeping sector had flourished without government’s support and patronage, maintained Asadullah Khan, who demanded of the government to provide high standard packing facility in Peshawar. The estimated number of beehives in Pakistan is around 300,000 and over 600,000 people are looking after these boxes.

People in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and adjoining tribal areas have switched over from farming to beekeeping due to high demand for honey and high prospects for personal development.

Apiculturists produce honey through domesticated bees which were initially imported from Italy in early 1980s. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab have the highest numbers of beekeepers.

Dr Ghulam Ali Bajwa, head of the department of sericulture at the Pakistan Forest Institute, Peshawar, said wild bees were vanishing due to use of pesticides and deforestation in the country. He said use of pesticides was affecting production of domesticated bees too because it killed bees.

Dr Bajwa said that besides economic activities beekeeping also played an important role in conservation of forests and vegetation.

“Wild bees are vanishing in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa because of indiscriminate use of pesticides and it also causes diseases in domesticated bees and affect production,” he said, adding that decades ago wild bees were major source of honey production in rural areas of the country.

Dr Bajwa said people were depending on domesticated bees for getting honey for domestic consumption since wild bees faded away. He said the government was providing training and other facility to build capacity of beekeepers.

Beekeepers also said honey production was going down due to unnecessary use of pesticides and deforestation. “Vegetation is vanishing, which affects production of honey,” observed Asadullah Khan. He said the government should regulate use of pesticides to protect bees.

Atals Khan, an official in the divisional forest office, Kohat, said berry covered area had increased in Karak since the natural gas had been provided in rural and urban areas of the district.

Natural gas is produced in Karak.

The official said before provision of gas, the people chopped off berry trees for domestic consumption and that the forest department and house owners were planting berry trees in Karak for beekeeping.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2014