Slovenia Celebrated the Third World Bee Day

Beehive in Slovenia, photo by Jost Gantar, slovenia.info
Beehive in Slovenia, photo by Jost Gantar, slovenia.info

It has been two years since the UN General Assembly proclaimed 20 May as World Bee Day on the initiative brought forward by Slovenia.

Did you know Slovenia is a cradle of beekeeping, the ancestral home of the native Carniolan honeybee known as the world’s most peaceful bee species, nicknamed the Lady Bee? Read our story on bees and Slovenia’s api-experiences offer: Land of Milk and Honey.

The most important thing is that the world became aware of the great importance of bees and started to respect beekeepers’ work. In the last two years, people’s awareness of the importance of bees has increased, which is very important since agriculture now uses less chemical fertilisers, which reduces mass bee deaths. Furthermore, significantly more honey plants are being planted. Slovenian and foreign politicians are becoming more and more aware of the significance of bees, as evidenced by the adoption of important international documents to protect bees and pollinators.

Slovenia exports both honey and bees. In 2019, it exported almost 332 tonnes of honey, while honey exports increased eight times over the past ten years. In the EU, there are some 650,000 beekeepers and 17.5 million beehives, which makes the bloc the worlds’s second largest honey producer after China.

Read more at: https://www.gov.si/en/news/2020-05-20-the-third-world-bee-day/