Beekeeping is one of the most important branches of agriculture

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The head of the ministry reminded that, although beekeeping is one of the smaller sectors in Hungarian agriculture, it can still be considered one of the most important. That is why our country has made beekeeping activities tax-exempt in a unique way in Europe. For the first time in the European Union, Hungary introduced animal welfare support for beekeepers, an amount equivalent to 15 euros per beehive every year, thereby helping to maintain healthy bee populations and the bee industry. Those involved requested payment for 890,000 bee colonies within the framework of the unified application. In addition, domestic beekeepers have been receiving a so-called bee health subsidy for 5 years, which beekeepers claim every year after 1 million bee colonies, amounting to HUF 1,000 per bee colony, the minister listed.

István Nagy considers it an important Hungarian success that the EU honey labeling rules are changed at the initiative of our country

Hungary made a proposal to amend the honey directive, which concerned the tightening of origin marking. The Hungarian initiative was also accepted by the European Parliament and the Council of Agriculture Ministers. So from now on, it will be necessary to specifically indicate the proportion of honey mixture from which countries in the bottle. Another very important decision is that the regulation covers the development of an EU honey traceability system, he added. The minister emphasized that it was possible to get Brussels to change its attitude regarding the honey imported from Ukraine to the European Union, since the EU imposes a 17% duty on imports above the average of previous years. According to István Nagy, however, it is not possible to stop here, because the main difficulty is caused by the artificial honey coming into the Union from Asia, against which Brussels must act decisively. Pollination is necessary to preserve the ecosystem and biodiversity. If we want to maintain beekeeping activities, we must achieve such an economic result during the sale of honey that the farmers find it worthwhile to do their work. Since the decision is basically in the hands of the buyers, the head of the ministry asked the domestic consumers to be aware and buy Hungarian honey directly from the producers.

AM