The Ministry calls for aid aimed at improving the production and marketing of apicultural products

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development has opened the call to apply for aid to improve the production and marketing of bee products for this year. The initial budget for this campaign amounts to 2.37 million euros, pending the final allocation that will be approved by Sectorial Conference.

With the aim of favoring the generational changeover and the incorporation of women in this activity, this week has also been published in the Official Gazette of the Junta de Andalucía (BOJA) a modification of the regulatory bases derived from a new Royal Decree, which introduces a series of changes in relation to the regulation of beekeeping aid within the framework of the National Apicultural Programs.

This aid line, which has national and regional European funding, aims to improve the profitability of apiculture farms and the health status of hives. In addition, it facilitates settlement and transport to transhumant beekeepers and improves the competitiveness of the sector in order to obtain new marketing strategies, new commercial channels and added value of production, as well as to establish a dynamic of technological innovation applied to the production.

These incentives are directed 84% to owners of apiculture farms and 16% to cooperatives in this sector, representative organizations and associations of beekeepers. Helps beekeepers and beekeepers are designed to improve the profitability and sanitary status of their hives. The aid directed to associative entities is intended to encourage training and advice to beekeepers, as well as to support the use of product analysis to know the quality of honey.

Applications may be submitted until June 1 through the forms that are available on the website of the Ministry (http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/organismos/agriculturapescaydesarrollorural/areas/politica-agraria-comun/ayudas -pac / pages / pan.html).

As Councilor Rodrigo Sanchez Haro recalled, “Beekeeping itself is an activity that goes beyond its economic impact on the honey production sector, because of its fundamental importance for rural development, the ecological balance and to constitute the basis for conservation and the diversity of the plants that depend on the pollination, what contributes to elevate the productivity of great part of the cultures “.

Andalusia is the second autonomous community with the largest number of registered people in Spain, with 564,174 (4,567 more than in 2017) out of a total of 3,029,326, and has a sector made up of 3,565 beekeepers out of the 28,264 registered in the national census . It also has an official surveillance program of assaults and diseases of hives and, particularly, of varroosis, so it trusts to obtain this allocation of 2.37 million euros, with what Andalusia would be placed again this year as the second autonomous community that receives these funds .

For the incorporation of young people and women

According to the modification of the regulatory bases, for the granting of these aids, under a competitive concurrency regime, new evaluation criteria are presented to obtain points with the aim of promoting generational change and the incorporation of women into economic activity. in areas linked to the apicultural sector in the region.

In this sense, the applicant’s membership in an apicultural cooperative will be valued, and beekeepers will be holders of farms with shared ownership. In addition, you can increase the score in those beekeeping farms whose holders are under 40, as well as those that are run by women. Along with this, existing criteria are maintained, such as the size of the farm, participation in schemes of quality figures, membership in a health defense group, and that are beekeepers are holders of a professional farm that have previously been a beneficiary of the aid in the three previous campaigns or hold priority holdings.

In the 2017 campaign, a total of 2.1 million euros was paid in Andalusia for 1,226 beekeepers and three professional organizations and / or cooperatives, representing 386,970 beehives. This aid is 50% financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (Feaga), 25% from the central government and 25% from the Junta de Andalucía.

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