Honey Exports from India: A prospective overview

1. Honey Exports from India: A prospective overview Einstein has rightly said that when some situation poses extinction of honey bees, that will be the end of mankind. Honey is a distinctly flavored sweet preparation derived from honey bees which is preferred largely for various food preparations. The most common types of honey are- acacia honey, orange blossom honey, buckwheat honey, lotus honey and clover honey. Bee keeping is an ancient art (at least since 8000 years as per cave paintings) practiced all over the world which helps the bees build their hives near the flowering farms. Bee keeping industry depends mainly on pollen and nectar produced from the flowering plants. Mono-floral honey is majorly sourced from huge farms producing same flowers and multi-floral honey is the variety sourced from various types of flowers. Bee keepers claiming for mono-floral honey need to keep their bee hives in huge farms that are far from other species of flowering plants. But since the bee- activity cannot be contained, there will be a small amount of nectar that might be derived from other flowering species as well. 4 major uses of natural honey are:  Direct consumption  Ingredient in products  Industrial honey  Raw material for mead India's abundance in biodiversity of more than 500 flowering species of plants constitutes huge potential for development of bee keeping industry. Here are the four major types of honeybees among which rock bees are the only stinging species. Several sub-species are known to exist and recent years have also witnessed exotic cultivars being introduced into India. Bee keeping is carried out in various indigenous hives including clay pots, wood logs, wall niches, baskets and many types of wooden boxes. Mustard Honey, Eucalyptus Honey, Lychee Honey, Sunflower Honey, Pongamia Honey, Multi-flora Himalayan Honey, Acacia Honey, Wild Flora Honey, Multi and Mono floral Honey are some of the major varieties of Indian Natural Honey. The largest honey producing nations in the world are China, European Union, Turkey, Ukraine and Argentina. Top 5 importers are Germany, United States, United Kingdom, France and Japan. India exported 29.5 thousand metric tonnes of honey during 2014-15. Origin and color of the honey are the major determinants of price in the global market. Along with these, the

2. presence of organic certification makes a huge difference too. Indian honey is found to have high residual levels in the international market which is the main drawback in exports. Bee keeping near organic farms and harvesting the naturally grown bee honey can be a key in increasing the international demand for Indian honey. Modern bee keeping techniques are to be adopted on a large scale. Many of the Indian farmers are unaware about the additional income that the bee keeping can bring and the ease of maintenance. With all of these in place, Indian honey productions are bound to soar high even in international markets. For more details visit us at: http://www.eximdesk.com/buzz/honey-exports-from-india-a- prospective-overview?channel=organic_doc