GAF
In Sancti Spíritus the bee did go to the honeycomb
In addition to surpassing the production planned for the year, Beekeeping in Sancti Spíritus must achieve the second highest mark in its history
From so much going to the honeycomb, the beekeepers from Spiritus were infected with the industriousness of the bees that seemed nomadic, taking the apiaries to whatever flowering spot appeared in the countryside and during 2021 they nailed the stinger so hard that they knew how to take advantage of the climatic behavior so as not to only to exceed the planned production —790 tons of honey—, but the territory estimates that it will end the year with a stockpile of more than 807 tons, the second largest production in its history. In these months of so many setbacks and vicissitudes, Beekeeping got the work vaccination on time, it acted as a true hive that made transhumance - movement of apiaries to places with better blooms - the best tool when it comes to managing the endowments and turned the agricultural measures into a catalog of opportunities to revive the economy and production, to the point of exceeding the 2020 delivery by nearly 300 tons of honey. BEEKEEPER BY CHARM Raúl Concepción Lorenzo is a veterinarian who combines the profession with that of "charming beekeeper", in his own words. Associated with the Camilo Cienfuegos cooperative from Spiritus, he practices family beekeeping with his father and is one of those producers who retraces the province behind the blooms. "Breakfast, lunch, I eat and dream of bees, I have been in the activity for 21 years, I have not done anything else in my life", such credentials have made him a benchmark of beekeeping from Spiritus, devoted to the application of science and technology and to have endowments of strong and healthy hives. "Generally every year I achieve a yield of more than 60 kilograms per hive, this year I think it will be higher because it has been very good for the harvest, we could talk about reaching 80 kilograms and the national average is between 45 and 50", he details. Behind the good beekeeping year there is something more than the work displayed at the foot of the apiaries. "The blooms behaved very well, for example, for five years the mangrove practically had not flowered, notice that it gave two harvests; There were no cyclones, nor did forest fires occur, which are so damaging to this activity, and the temperatures behaved stable; but if an element worth highlighting is the timely transhumance when the flower was in bloom, also the support given to the transfer of the apiaries to the coast, returning them and going to attend to them ”, explained Raúl Concepción. For a producer who manages to collect about 24 tons of honey in the year, the result is beyond spending the year moving the apiaries from Jatibonico to Trinidad and if a task decides, in his opinion, it is the handling. “In this activity there are determining elements: nature, resources and inputs and man with dedication, knowledge, occupation and control; you can have good blooms and resources, that if the man who works from dawn to dusk is not there, there will be no result; but the bee works more than the beekeeper, 24 hours without sleep from when she is born until she dies, on the other hand we do sleep ”, expressed Raúl Concepción. THE EXPORT INCENTIVE The payment of MLC to producers and production bases for the export of honey has become a stimulating spring for the production and purchase of inputs that are reversed in the development and sustainability of the sector, even though they are mechanisms not exempt from perfection and improvements. “This has had a great impact on production. All producers have had access to this financing scheme and to the wholesale and retail markets; in our branch it is a real incentive that has allowed them to acquire machinery, clothing, shoes, electrodes, other protective accessories and parts for their means of transport ”, stressed Amaury Santander Hernández, director of the Sancti Spíritus Beekeeping Base Business Unit. The work of Beekeeping has been greatly catapulted as a result of the approval of the 63 measures to stimulate the agricultural sector and among the various advantages introduced, the manager cites the link with other entities of the territory and the country, the management of new productions and financing schemes . A good part of the result of the sector corresponds to the UBPC Antonio Díaz Fleites, a base so atypical that it locates six brigades dedicated to the production of honey, wax and propolis in five municipalities of the province, in addition to serving four queen bee breeding centers . To reaffirm its endorsement, it would suffice to say that it collected 48 percent of the honey from Sancti Spíritus.
