After last year’s exceptional harvest, 2021 is looking very meagre: while a hive normally produces 15-20 kilos of honey, the current figure is 0-3 kilos, Swiss public radio, RTS, reportedExternal link on Thursday.
“The scarcity of honey is mainly due to the weather, which has been very unfavourable, both for the first harvest in spring and for the second harvest,” Francis Saucy, president of the Beekeeping Society of French-speaking Switzerland, told RTS.
“It rained a lot and the bees had very little time to collect nectar. There was also very little nectar on flowers and trees,” he said.
Swiss honey will therefore be difficult to find on shop shelves, and the few jars that will be sold will be expensive. According to specialists quoted by RTS, honey will cost CHF25-30 ($27-32) per kilogram.
Unlike wild bees, honeybees are important to commercial production. Yet few of the 500,000 farms in Switzerland keep hives – “they don’t bring in any money,” Saucy said. This means the country’s 20,000 bee farms are generally run by amateurs.
More
More
Switzerland’s battle of the bees
This content was published on
Do Swiss measures to support the domestic honeybee disadvantage the equally important wild bee?
Swiss price watchdog slams excessive prices for generic medicines
This content was published on
The cheapest generic medicines available in Switzerland are more than twice as expensive as in other countries, according to a study by the Swiss price watchdog.
Nature should not figure in net zero calculations: academic study
This content was published on
The natural removal of CO2 from the atmosphere by forests or oceans should not be included in the net-zero balance of climate protection measures, argue researchers.
This content was published on
None of the 15 major Swiss retail banks is meeting international climate and biodiversity targets, according to a ranking by WWF Switzerland.
This content was published on
Nestlé's new CEO Laurent Freixe, has presented plans for the future of the world's largest food company, after his first few weeks in office.
Swiss foreign minister calls on Moscow to end Ukraine war
This content was published on
It's high time Moscow ended its war against Ukraine, Swiss foreign minister Ignazio Cassis tells the UN Security Council.
This content was published on
The only alternative to the UN Palestinian agency’s work in Gaza is to allow Israel to run services there, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, told reporters in Geneva on Monday.
Study reveals food culture differences between Switzerland and neighbours
This content was published on
Three-quarters of Swiss people consider eating to be a pleasurable, social activity, a new survey reveals. Healthy eating, however, plays a much less important role, it found.
Mites and insecticides prove killer combo for honey bees
This content was published on
Researchers from the Institute of Bee Health at the University of BernExternal link and the COLOSS honey bee research associationExternal link studied the “combination effect” of two stress factors: insecticides and a type of mite. The researchers treated workers in honey bee colonies with two selected insecticides (neonicotinoids). These had no influence on the weight…
Does saving bee colonies mean breaking with tradition?
This content was published on
Experts have presented new ideas to help save the bees, but they may struggle to gain acceptance among traditional beekeepers.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.