Carinthia's beekeepers celebrate: a good year for the honey!

Carinthia's beekeepers celebrate: a good year for the honey!

On Saturday, December 7, 2024, the day of the honey is celebrated in Carinthia, a Thanksgiving festival for beekeepers who can look back proudly for their success. Despite initial difficulties due to cold, moist weather in the spring, the honey year was positive overall. Elisabeth Thurner, the chairwoman of the State Association of Beekeeping Carinthia, described the harvest as largely satisfactory. In 2024, generous 580 tons of honey were harvested in Carinthia, which represents a solid average in the long -term comparison, as orf reported.

The Carinthian beekeepers, a total of 3,200 in number, have not only provided honey production with their specialist knowledge, but also emphasized the ecologically decisive pollination performance of the honey bees. These contribute to the pollination of 80 percent of cultural and crops, as Thurner notes. Interestingly, it can be seen that some regions were able to record like the Mölltal, while others, like the Villach area, suffered from total failures, which underlines the weather dependency of the harvest, as Krone in addition.

high -quality production and challenge through imports

Overall, a network of 3,400 beekeepers takes care of the bees, whereby only a small part works commercially. Arno Kronhofer from the State Association emphasizes that the bee death affects wild bees, while the honeybees are well looked after as farm animals. The marketing of honey is successful, but there are also challenges: Heering honey imports from non-EU countries are increasingly filling the shelves of supermarkets. In this context, Nicole Kummer, the state managing director, emphasizes the value of the regional honey, which also convinces with prices of up to 16 euros per kilogram.

Carinthia is also pleased with the award of the Gailtaler beekeeping in Flaschberger, which has received the golden honeycomb for the best forest honey for the second time. In addition to honey production, the beekeepers also offer valuable products such as wax and propolis. In over 200 courses annually, knowledge of beekeeping is also conveyed, which underlines the importance of these domestic animals.