Holy SpiritDue to the lack of fuel, the leaders of Apicuba in Sancti Spíritus have taken a step that is not only suicidal for the industry, but also very aggressive for the bee ecosystem: killing the queen. The swarm, mourning the death of the one who is the mother and the center of the honeycomb, becomes inactive until the workers prepare and raise – by feeding it with “royal jelly” – a new candidate, which will also be given and so on. . until the transportation problem is solved.
Apicuba buys time, but the price the horse pays is great: its harmony and life cycles, its normal production, its future – without a queen there are no eggs – are broken, and the effect on the country of Sancti Spiritus, whose plants are affected by the bees, is great. Animals whose ability to communicate and social life have been proven, which must spend more than 15 days before their queen – also a death sentence, because the crisis continues – is a terrible situation for the colony.
The transportation crisis paralyzed movement from the coast, where most of the Sancti Spiritus boats are located.
Santiago, 34 years old and a beekeeper in the area, witnessed the process. “They kill the queens because there’s no way to find honey,” he explains. 14 middle. The transportation crisis paralyzed movement from the coast, where most of the Sancti Spiritus boats are located, to the Apicuba plant in the province. “The little honey that comes into the West is taken and the plant here stops,” he laments.
There are three plants in the country – one in each region – but the one in Sancti Spíritus is the most important in terms of its processing capacity, says Santiago, who emphasizes: “There is honey, the bees are not the problem, but Apicuba says there is no way to go look for her.” Removing the queen and “stopping production” is a measure that the bosses have directed “until the situation is resolved,” a date that no manager wants to predict.
In the Apicuba plants, the honey is combined and treated with a treatment that makes it more expensive in the international market, where the Cuban product is highly valued, especially since the disease of the destroy bee colonies all over the planet, except in the Island, it is packed in different sizes and packaging. “Now, in addition to the bear bottle – about 340 grams – and the knobs, a honey-based cosmetics factory is being established and tests for honey ice cream have already begun.”
Apicuba measures do not save production. According to Santiago, before the pandemic, 20 to 25 containers were delivered to state agencies every year in the Sancti Spiritus region; “Now, since January, not a single machine has been delivered. Everything has been depressed in such a way that months can go by and the business does not develop,” he said.
Before the pandemic, 20 to 25 containers were delivered to state agencies each year; Now, since January, not a single device has been delivered
Problems with paying agents had already hit the industry hard. Although, by law, the State must give part of the profits in foreign currency obtained from the sale of honey to the curator – especially to European countries such as Spain and France -, Apicuba began to pay in MLC (freely convertible currency). “We protest,” says Santiago, “because, with MLC, what can we buy?” You need tools, equipment… Temperature and humidity can affect the quality of the honey. Also, since it is food, everything must be sterilized. None of that is sold in MLC.”
To reduce the displeasure of the Guajiros, Apicuba began selling products from abroad – “equipment for humidity, humidifiers, filters, thermometers, homogenizers” – at the price they were on the international market. “They made us buy everything,” says Santiago. However, the problems or disappointments have not ended, and the impossibility of going to collect honey on the coast is a new problem.
“It’s easier to sell on the left hand“, summarizes the bee, “and deliver the worst quality honey to the State.” The honey delivered to the State is not the best, which must be between 15 % and 18% moisture, class A – the purest – but the one that is higher than 20% moisture, is not as good or as valuable abroad.
Another “trick” of Apicuba adds to the equation: Cuba has opened bee plants in Guyana, Venezuela and Colombia about which the official media say very little. In a recent Prensa Latina cable, Guyana pointed out that Havana has been instrumental in the “tremendous growth” of the honey industry in that country.
“Cuban honey is bottled in these places and sold at a higher price. The guajiro cannot control the profits received and pay the minimum. Before, when a container of 60 drums was sold, it was known that it reached 900,000 or 800,000 dollars in the international market,” Santiago complains.
Cuba exports 90% of the honey it produces and “continues to produce”, according to ‘Granma’, the profits the sector offers
Cuba exports 90% of the honey it produces and “continues to do so,” according to Grannythe profits that the sector offers. The country collected 9,200 tons of honey in 2022, less than the previous year – in which the income from exports ended. 20 million dollars-, with bees that fed, above all, on “the purple and white sunflower, the Indian vine or lumberjack, the coastal romerillo, the dark mangrove, the flowering piñon, the bramble, the baría, the dagame and even the royal palm”. In the country there are, according to official data, 218,887 bee colonies in 6,922 production apiaries and 83 genetic centers for the breeding of queen bees.
Granny He also provided an extensive list of Apicuba’s clients: China, Turkey, Iran, Argentina, Ukraine, India, Russia, Mexico, the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, France, the Kingdom United, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Belgium. In that same article they admitted that despite state regulation when it comes to exports, more than 90% of production depends on private beekeepers, “many of them with 100 or more bees .”
Although the Queen’s order was killed to temporarily ban production, the Communist Party newspaper assures that the Government is committed to “the sustainability of beekeeping and the protection and survival of these industrial insects.” ”
