Honey season not very sweet in Latvia this year

Like other agricultural sectors, beekeeping has been affected by rainy and cool weather this year. Bees are still harvesting honey from the currently flowering Canada goldenrod and heather honey is also expected, but so far honey yields have been lower than last year, the beekeeping association told Latvian Radio on 18 August.


Beekeeper Valdis Janovs from Āgenskalns, Rīga, estimates that overall honey production in his hives this season will be a third less than last year, due to the unfavourable weather conditions in both spring and summer, but this year Rīga has managed to produce particularly good quality linden honey.

"Because we didn't really have spring honey and the bees were on the verge of survival. However, we were fortunate this year with linden, as we had a record harvest for a couple of days. For example, one day we had a yield of 11.9 kilograms; that is very high. Then it rained again, and the conditions changed and the yield stopped.

Asked what rain and wet mean to bees, Janovs joked that "they sit and knit by the fireplace". But in reality, bees don't fly in the rain. "It also has to do with what and how much is flowering and whether they have a food base to fly to in the first place. We are now in the second half of summer, and the scales show that more honey is being eaten every day than is being brought in."

The beekeeper is expecting more honey from the Canadian goldenrod, which is currently in bloom, and the city also has leaf or autumn honey at the end of the season, which requires cool nights and hot days.

"It's a bit of a lottery, there are good honey years and not so good. It's a normal, natural cycle," Janovs says.

Asked whether there will be enough local honey on the Latvian market this year, Janovs reassures that there will not be a shortage, as Latvia is a honey-exporting country. Last year's honey is still available. Honey does not spoil so quickly; if it is properly removed and stored, it keeps well.

Juris Šteiselis, Chairman of the Council of the Latvian Beekeeping Society, adds that the rainy days have generally made it more difficult for bees, and beekeepers across Latvia have also often found it difficult to access apiaries because of flooded fields and roads. In the regions, beekeepers are still waiting for heather honey, but the flowering of these nectar crops has also been delayed.

"Heather usually starts flowering around 25 July in the central regions of Latvia, but this year it has only just started to flower. Very unevenly, some bushes, but the rest are just starting to bloom. This means that the cold and wet that prevailed have affected the plants even more profoundly. And, as far as rain is concerned, if there is too much water and the soil is leaching nutrients into the plants, there is nothing to release nectar from.
Steiselis predicts that Latvia will have a much smaller honey harvest overall this year.

"The trend is now noticeable, if only by looking at the number of honey samples beekeepers submitted to the honey competition this year. Whereas in recent years 60 or more samples were submitted to the honey assessment, this year just over 30 samples were sent and a few more were brought later to the beekeepers' meeting. Well, I would almost like to say that this shows that the honey harvest in Latvia is almost halved. We don't have the exact statistics yet, but the trend is clear."

The Beekeeping Association also reminds the public that, although there will be no shortage of local honey, the Latvian market is saturated with fake honey and urges consumers to pay attention to the origin of the honey.