In Ukraine, in 2024, the mortality rate of bees in the controlled area was 20-25%, which is significantly higher than pre-war figures and is explained by unfavorable weather conditions in spring and summer, which led to a reduction in the area of honey plants, Volodymyr Postoenko, director of the Prokopovych Institute of Beekeeping, told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The year 2024 was very difficult for beekeepers due to a sharp climate change. In spring, white acacia is very important for the development of bee colonies. During its flowering period, there were frosts all over Ukraine. Bees did not get honey from it. Then there was a problem with an important honey plant – sunflower. Due to the drought, its yield was low, it did not produce nectar and there was no development of bee colonies. This led to high bee mortality, which in different regions amounted to 15-20%, and sometimes 23-27%. The national average was 20-25%,” the scientist said.
According to him, such a high mortality rate of bee colonies in Ukraine was not observed before the war. Earlier, bee mortality in Ukraine was mainly associated with the lack of information on chemical field treatment by farmers. Bee mortality from pesticides was also significant in different regions. However, the state has introduced a number of legislative initiatives that allow beekeepers to defend their rights in courts.
Postoenko noted that before the war, the mortality rate of bees from viruses and diseases in Ukraine was low, and only domestic bees were grown in the country. The situation has worsened as foreign bee breeds that do not have the necessary resistance to existing regional diseases have been introduced into production.
The scientist added that in a number of countries in different years, the mortality rate of bee colonies reached 80-90%, which is why society is concerned about the problem of bee mortality.
The director of the Institute of Beekeeping pointed out that the Ukrainian beekeeping industry, like a number of others, does not have reliable statistics, as only 5% of beekeepers are engaged in industrial production, and the remaining 95% are represented by households. They, in turn, are in no hurry to register their apiaries, which is why reporting on their activities is approximate.
“Before the war, according to unofficial statistics, there were 3-3.5 million bee colonies in Ukraine. (…) In addition, unofficial statistics say that the apiaries that were in the current occupied territory before the war accounted for about 30% of the total number of apiaries in Ukraine before the war,” the expert added.
In a comment to Interfax-Ukraine, Hanna Burka, project manager of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said that in 2023 the number of bee colonies in Ukraine amounted to 2402.9 thousand, which is 10.5% less than in 2022.
Burka emphasized that the rate of decline in bee colonies in industrial enterprises was higher – 13.6%, to 32.5 thousand, and in households – by 10.5%, to 2379.4 thousand,
According to her information, as of January 1, 2024, there were 2314 thousand bee colonies in Ukraine, of which 2286 thousand were in households, and 28 thousand families were in enterprises, of which 4 thousand families were in farms.
As of January 2024, the top five regions in terms of beekeeping were Khmelnytskyi region with 376.6 thousand bee colonies, Vinnytsia region with 188.9 thousand, Kirovohrad region with 149.9 thousand, Zhytomyr region with 149 thousand, and Ivano-Frankivsk region with 140.5 thousand bee colonies.
At the same time, the most developed industrial beekeeping in 2024 was in Poltava region, where 4.6 thousand bee colonies are located, Vinnytsia and Cherkasy regions have 3.3 thousand bee colonies each. In Khmelnytsky region, there are 1.9 thousand bee colonies in the industrial segment, and in Kyiv region – 1.7 thousand bee colonies. Households in Khmelnytskyi region are the leaders in keeping bee colonies – 374.7 thousand, Vinnytsia region – 185.6 thousand, and Kirovohrad region – 148.8 thousand.
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, responding to an information request from Interfax-Ukraine, confirmed the experts’ information and added that before the full-scale war in Ukraine, as of January 1, 2022, the number of bee colonies in the country was 2686 thousand. During the two years of the full-scale war in Ukraine (2022-2023 – IF-U), the number of bee colonies decreased by 13.8% and amounted to 2,314 thousand.
“As a result of the hostilities of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, the livestock sector, in particular the beekeeping industry, has suffered destructive and destructive configurations,” the Ministry of Agrarian Policy emphasized.
The Ministry referred to an assessment by experts from the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), according to which, as of December 31, 2023, losses due to the reduction of bee colonies in Ukraine are estimated at $31.9 million, excluding losses from a decrease in beekeeping production.
