Romania becomes first in EU for honey production

Romania became the country with the largest honey production in the EU, according to data centralized at European level. It benefitted from 10% of the EU funds allocated for this field.

The report of the European Commission on the national beekeeping programs for 2013-2015 shows that Romania produced 35,000 tons of honey in 2015, compared to only 20,000 tons in 2014.

Spain ranked second with 32,300 tons in 2015, followed by Romania’s western neighbor Hungary, with 30,700 tons.

In 2014, European beekeepers received some EUR 66.2 million in funds. The same amount was allocated in 2015. Of the total bulk, some EUR 33.1 million came from the EU’s budget whereas the other half was from the member states’ national budgets. Spain absorbed 16% of the funds, followed by France (11%) and Romania (10%).

The EU funds for beekeeping programs are distributed to each member state based on the number of hives on its territory. The countries with most hives get most money. Almost half of all the EU funds went to the five member states with the largest number of hives (Spain, France, Greece, Romania, and Italy) in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

Europe had some 16 million hives between 2014 and 2016.

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