Many beekeeping businesses have been severely affected during this COVID-19 pandemic.
This, according to Fiji Beekeepers Association president Nilesh Kumar. He said beekeepers couldn’t attend to their farms because of the border restrictions.
“Their businesses were affected and they were not able to meet their customers’ demand,” he said.
He said movement was limited which prohibited farmers from harvesting and carrying out maintenance work.
“It is very important for us to go to the beehive and check the health of the bees, look out for any disease, harvest the honey and do maintenance work as well.”
He said honey sales declined because beekeepers could not harvest honey.
“Not all equipment used for beekeeping are readily available locally and it was difficult getting them from overseas.”
Mr Kumar said from this month, the association would be undertaking beekeeping training.
“Going forward, we want to do more group activities and even now we have started holding small training sessions as well.
“We want to do group training for farmers who are interested, both Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.”
