The honey sponge becomes sour to beekeepers, to protest today

Kullu: honey is no longer a sweet treatment for beekeepers in the region. Fed up with Bee National Board‘S (NBB) do not guarantee the sale of mustard honey To companies or address the issue of “mass adulteration”, they have called the protest in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan on March 10.
They are trapped in a sticky situation, since 30,000 tons of mustard honey, extracted in recent months, is stored in the three states, since companies, including some of the big brands, have refused to buy, citing “zero demand.” Pushed to the wall, they have also decided to return the registration certificates given by the NBB.
Beekeepers say that companies and intermediaries tell them that there is no demand for honey in the market, but the reality is different. “The truth is that most companies are selling sugar and corn syrup on behalf of honey because they are getting it 40-50 per kg. We just want fair rates for our honey and the end of adulteration,” said Rajash Jakhar, who goes to the Bee de Bee Farmers Society (MKBWS), and the fights for the struggles for ‘Wealfare. Adulteration can only be detected using advanced techniques.
Jakhar said they had been demanding that the NBB obtain proven honey samples for adulteration using advanced techniques such as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (MRI) and high -resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), but the members of the Board have done nothing. “They did not intervene even when the companies pressed the beekeepers to reduce the mustard honey rates in Jan,” he said.
Companies agreed to buy mustard honey from RS 118 per kg in January of this year after the protests of the beekeepers, but only for a few days. “The viable rate for mustard honey is RS 135 per kg after adding expenses, but we still agreed to reduce the price. In 2020, the beekeepers sold honey for only 60 per kg, and after much effort, the rates of RS 100 last year, and now the companies are rejected. MKBWS.
In winter, thousands of beekeepers of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab migrate with their colonies of Apis Mellifera Bees, mainly to the plains of Haryana and Rajasthan, for the Mustaza honey season and spend the next months until March establishing apiaría and extracting honey. It is a beneficial season due to a relatively higher honey production and good yields. However, this year, beekeepers have been forced to throw their honey with intermediaries without loading a single penny.
Laxman Thakur, a beekeeper from the Kullu district of Himachal, says this year has been the worst. “Instead of bringing honey to Himachal, I have given it to a merchant, who will pay me when companies begin to buy. It is really a gloomy situation for beekeepers,” he added.