Haryana: Beekeepers feel the sting as adulteration leads to price dip

Beekeeping is no more a profitable business as beekeepers are facing a tough time due to adulteration of honey with sugar syrup and market dominance by big companies.

“The major challenge we face is Chinese sugar adulterants which have caused a great damage to the beekeeping business as those who produce pure honey do not even get the input cost,” said beekeepers of the state.

They said that ignorance and lack of proper knowledge about pure honey are helping big commercial brands sell their “adulterated” honey easily in the market, thus the beekeepers are not getting the remunerative price for their pure honey.

Moreover, due to dominance of the big companies, the demand for pure or frozen honey has come down significantly and the beekeepers are being forced to sell their produce to private buyers at the wholesale price of ₹60 per kg against the input cost of ₹150 per kg, they claimed.

Worried about their future, hundreds of beekeepers from the state gathered at Kaithal on Tuesday and raised the issue of falling prices of honey due to adulteration.

Rajesh Jhakhar, national president of the Madhukranti Beefarmers Welfare Society, said, “Farmers are being forced to sell their produce at wholesale price of ₹65 per kg against the input cost of ₹150. How will we survive?”

“We are left with no option but to shun beekeeping as we cannot fight with this competition and adulteration due to Chinese syrups,” he added. The issue had been raised with the government and the authorities concerned to check adulteration, but no steps were taken, he added.

Beekeepers said the Union government had introduced several schemes for farmers, but they did not get any benefit of such schemes. The honey industry is flourishing but the bee farmers are not getting any benefit of it.

They urged the government to take steps to protect the beekeepers of the state and introduce a policy to check adulteration.

Azad Bhadu, a honey farmer from Kaithal, said, “We have called a meeting of the beekeepers and gave them a platform to raise their issues. The government should also take steps to promote frozen honey, which is pure honey”.

Rajesh Kumar, a beekeeper from Pundri, said, “The main problem is that we are not getting buyers for our produce as due to marketing strategies of the big companies, small farmers are not able to get the remunerative price of their produce.”

Dr Charanjeet Juneja, former consultant (beekeeping) of the Integrated Beekeeping Development Centre (IBDC), Kurukshetra, said due to the lack of labs and machines, checking adulteration is a major challenge.

He said beekeepers should take the advantage of the IBDC, Kurukshetra, and sell their product after getting it processed at the centre at the nominal fee of ₹5 per kg.