Honey production is up in the Kurdistan Region and there is no need for the imports, according to one Sulaimani agriculture official.
“There’s a great domestic amount of honey,” deputy head of the Water Resources and Agriculture Department in the Sulaimani province Rizgar Hassan told Rudaw on why the ban was put in place.
The decision comes from the KRG Ministry of Agriculture, according to Hassan. Last year, the Kurdistan Region produced less than 100 tons of honey, according to the Sulaimani agriculture department. However, in 2019, Sulaimani province alone has already produced 80 tons, which is enough to meet domestic demands, said Hassan.
"The quality of Kurdistan honey is the best," he said. “We will not need any imported honey products."
The decree was issued in accordance with Law No. 4 of 2008 for the protection of domestic products.
Hassan said honey products from abroad raise health concerns.
"The decision will be in the interest of our beekeepers and it will further bolster our beekeepers to use domestic honey and not import from outside. Sometimes imported honeys spread illness,” he said.
Every year during August and September, beekeepers collect their outputs.
One local beekeeping leader agreed that honey production is way up.
"This year's honey product in the Kurdistan Region is way better compared to the past four years," Arif Sherwani, the head of the Beekeepers Network Association of Kurdistan told Rudaw English on Thursday. "The three provinces of the Region, Erbil, Sulaimani and Duhok together produced 500 tonnes of honey, with the majority coming from Erbil."
One risk associated with beekeeping is the threat of Turkish airstrikes targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants. The PKK has fought Turkey for decades, and bases itself along the Turkey-Iraq border in KRG territory, where Turkey routinely bombs them. The airstrikes have forced some beekeepers to stay away from their hives.
There are more than 15,000 beekeepers across the Kurdistan Region who raise 500,000 beehives, according to Sherwani.
Sherwani urges the people of the Kurdistan Region not to consume imported honey.
“They contain abundant sugars and their quality is no match of the domestic ones," he said of foreign honey products.
Iraq as a whole consumes around 2,450 tons of honey every year, but produces just 1,000 tons, according to figures from Fadel El-Zubi, the representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN in Iraq.
This is not the first time the KRG has banned imports of a product to help local business. In August, the KRG prohibited importing tomatoes.
