Without bees there is no food

(Photo: AM/István Fekete)

István Nagy declared: “the world will be poorer without bees, it will even perish”. According to the head of the ministry, the Hungarian honey society is grateful for bringing “the most complete food, the wonder of nature, honey” to so many children, and expressed the hope that 200,000 Hungarian children will become new honey consumers with the honey breakfast. The aim of the campaign is to encourage domestic honey consumption, which is now an average of one kilogram per person per year. István Nagy also touched on the fact that, in order to protect beekeepers and consumers, Hungary has been calling for stricter labeling of the origin of honey mixtures in the European Union for years.

Dezső Mészáros, the managing director of Sió-Eckes Kft., talked about how a bee visits 1,500-2,000 flowers in a day, pollinates them, and since 8-10 apples are needed for one liter of 100 percent fruit juice, therefore one bee in a day contributes to the production of more than 200 fruit juices. Beekeeper Viktória Borszéki, the honey queen of 2023, emphasized that she wants to promote the beneficial effects of honey on health and the diversity of its uses as widely as possible. He mentioned that honey is immune-boosting, energizing, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, helps the vascular and digestive system, while it contains a lot of vitamins and minerals. Mayor András Cser-Palkovics (Fidesz) emphasized that everyone wins by consuming high-quality honey, because it helps maintain health, while also contributing to the survival of apiaries. Péter Bross, the president of the National Hungarian Beekeeping Association, confirmed that the future of their profession also depends on what children today think about honey and bees, what they teach them about the importance of bees and pollination, what the significance of the work of beekeepers is, how honey is made honey. According to the press release, the European honey breakfast initiative started in Slovenia in 2007, which Hungary joined in 2014. This year’s central event was hosted by Zoltán Kodály Primary School, High School and Elementary Art School in Székesfehérvár, while more than 200,000 students can enjoy the honey breakfast at almost a thousand locations nationwide.

MTI