Friedrichshafen – Beekeepers in need in the Ländle! In view of the low honey harvests, especially in southern Germany, the German Professional and Commercial Beekeepers Association (DBIB) is demanding financial aid from the future federal government.
“In the center and in the south there were total failures in many places,” said spokesman Thomas Heynemann Küenzi in the run-up to the association’s annual meeting on Saturday in Friedrichshafen. “Unfortunately, this brings some companies to the brink of ruin.”
Various products for everything to do with bees
In order to secure income in the long term and to compensate for the pollination of plants by the bees, the association is calling for the future government to provide “basic funding as an ecological compensation payment of 150 euros per colony and year”.
In addition, professional beekeepers should be treated on an equal footing with other farmers in terms of agricultural policy, said Heynemann Küenzi. So there must be money for young beekeepers, similar to the funding for young farmers. In addition, professional beekeepers should have a say in bodies such as the “Agriculture Future Commission”.
According to the DBIB, the number of work-oriented beekeepers represented by the association has been growing for years. “We have an annual membership growth of ten percent,” said spokesman Heynemann Küenzi. The association currently represents 1,500 members, ten years ago it was 400.
Leisure beekeepers are also organized in the much larger German Beekeeping Association. According to the DBIB, the overwhelming number of bee colonies in Germany are looked after by employment-oriented beekeepers – with a share of 95 percent.