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Regional and International Beekeepers are in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), attending the 11th Caribbean Beekeeping Congress, which is being held under the theme “Building the Resilience of a Bee-Keeping Industry after a natural Disaster".

The three-day conference opened on Sunday, 30th October, at the Cruise Ship Berth.

The local Association’s President, Ms. Beverly Reddock, in her welcoming remarks, said that the theme was appropriate, as the hosting of the conference showed the Association how to be resilient amidst threats of pests, pesticides, global warming and diseases.

Ms. Reddock told those in attendance that the Association had chosen to promote, educate, and develop, a viable beekeeping industry in SVG, and the efforts to host the conference here augers well for the success of the local beekeepers.

The President also said that on Wednesday (2nd November), delegates will be going on a trip to Union Island where the local Association had successfully introduced bees through an Australian aid project. This has shown an increase yield of traditional crops, namely, peas and corn, spurring a new spirit of entrepreneurship surrounding apiculture.

President of the Caribbean Beekeepers Organisations (ACBO), Mr. Richard Mathias, in his address said that over the last two years, his organization has seen the development and implementation of very important initiatives across the Caribbean to support apiculture, and most importantly improve livelihoods.  However, he noted that the Caribbean beekeeping sector is still under increasing threats from continued escalation of climate change, the indiscriminate use of pesticides, and most critically, a renewed thrust to open domestic honey markets to international honey imports.

He said that the growing family of beekeepers across the Caribbean has begun to come together to address these issues, and cited as an example, that in 2021/2022, they were able to plant over 2000 trees across the region in support of reducing and providing forage for their pollinators.

Mr. Mathias also said that ACBO has started campaigning amongst farmers in member countries to reduce their pesticide use, and encourage integrated agricultural practices and biopesticide techniques.

The organization, he added, has also begun a regional conversation on the pros and cons of the importation of honey with a view towards properly supporting the regional beekeepers, who are coming closer and closer to the threat of fake honey into their countries.

“ACBO can, as a regional beekeeper sector, produce and provide honey to each other’s countries, only if they come together to fight against the ever -growing pressure of fake honey, which is currently threatening European and North American producers,” Mathias said. “We can’t allow foreign fake honey to take away our livelihoods, our trade, our tradition and destroy our biodiversity,” he urged.

In declaring the congress open, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, etc., Hon. Saboto Ceasar, stated that, on the issue of regionalism, some countries are blocking the movement of trade in honey; because of that, there are some stakeholders in some member states that are not investing further in honey production and apiculture in general, because they do not have access to very large markets. “So, when we speak about our honey import bill as a region going forward, I am asking for consensus as it pertains to the removal of trade barriers,” he said.

On the local end, Caesar said that the fogging by the Vector Unit is also a challenge to the beekeepers. To address the issue, he assured the beekeepers that the Ministry has written to the pesticides board and also engaged the Minister of Health and the Chief Medical Officer on the matter. “We all know how critical it is to ensure that the mosquitos don’t have their way, but we have to balance this, not only the protection of the bees, but there are many persons in the scientific field who are also noting that there are far better opportunities that we have available today that we can utilize to protect both bees and human beings.”

Minister Caesar also said that food security continues to play a very vital role, not only in production and productivity, but with the significant inflation in the cost of food, food ecosystems must be protected.

The opening was also addressed by representatives of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA); the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Conservative Fund; as well as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, etc.

Presentations of certificates were also given to those who successfully completed the IAC online Beekeeping Course, as part of the GEF, SGP and UNDP South/South Beekeeping and Biodiversity project.