Beekeeping biz a-buzz as honey imports dominate

Barbados produces only a tiny fraction of the honey it consumes, prompting a senior agriculture official to urge the country to urgently expand its pool of commercial beekeepers, reduce its 95 per cent reliance on imported honey and unlock growth in the industry. 

“Five per cent of the honey we produce… hardly any of it reaches the supermarket shelves,”  said Senior Agriculture Assistant Bernard Thompson. “So you can imagine the demand is great and the supply it’s very small.”

Thompson, who noted that 95 per cent of honey consumed is imported, called for more Barbadians to get into commercial beekeeping as the island marked World Bee Day at Springer Memorial School with a display,

The display formed part of activities to mark World Bee Day 2026 under the theme Bees for People and the Planet: A Partnership that Sustains Us All. Students were shown how hives operate, how honey is extracted and how queen bees are reared to expand colonies.

The ministry deliberately chose Springer Memorial because it wanted to expose more young people, particularly girls, to opportunities in beekeeping.

“Right now, a lot of the beekeepers are above 30 years old… We want to get young people into the art of beekeeping,” he said. “What better place than to bring the display to an all-girls school? We want to encourage the young people to get involved in beekeeping.”

He added that Barbados has “about two or three at most” operating on a commercial scale and stressed that more producers were needed if the country wanted to reduce its dependence on imported honey.

The senior agriculture assistant also warned consumers about adulterated honey products on the market.

“Sometimes you cannot trust all the honey that you see on the shelves,” he said. “If you see things like corn syrup, rice syrup, added sugars, you know that that honey is not pure honey. That’s adulterated.”

He urged Barbadians to support domestic beekeepers, saying local honey often contains beneficial properties from medicinal plants found across the island.

“When you purchase your local honey from your local beekeeper, you are actually getting some of the antioxidants, some of the antimicrobial, some of the anti-inflammatory properties from those plants,” he explained.

During the demonstration, students were shown a mock-up hive and a beekeeping cell bar frame used for the queen-rearing process in which queen larvae is taken from a hive into other hives to expand the colony.

Another display highlighted the use of flow hives, which allow honey to be collected without disturbing bees.

“Instead of having to go into my box and keep taking out the frame to extract honey, we just use this key … and we can actually capture honey coming straight from within the house without having to harm the bees,” another demonstrator said.

Thompson also revisited the issue of bee invasions at schools, which disrupted classes across Barbados in late 2024 after bees were drawn to sugary waste left on compounds during a nationwide shortage of flowering plants.

“That situation was mainly caused because at that time we were having what we call a dearth. A lot of the plants were not flowering,” he said. “Schools, of course, would have had a lot of sweet drink containers, candy wrappers, and those kinds of things around. So the bees were obviously looking for that sugary source.”

At the height of the problem in 2024, schools including Springer Memorial, Coleridge & Parry and A Dacosta Edwards Primary were affected as bees searched for alternative food sources due to reduced nectar supplies caused by persistent rainfall and fewer blossoms.

But Thompson said conditions have improved significantly this year.

“Right now we have only had about two calls so far from schools where they would have sighted bees around,” he said. “Because we are still in a nectar flow in Barbados right now, we’re pretty good.”

He also encouraged schools expanding agricultural programmes not to fear bees, noting that they generally do not sting unless threatened.

“Bees really would not approach you with the intention of stinging you,” he said. “We always tell the kids not to panic. If you feel that you need to move away, just gently walk away. Do not fan at the bees because the bees will take that as a threat.”

Bees are Barbados’ main pollinators. About a third of the food that we eat is because of bees. Thompson said: “it is best if as Barbadians, as people around the world, protect our bees. And you don’t have to be a beekeeper in order to do that.”

He suggested that corporate firms can lobby the government for policies and programmes to protect bees, starting a pollinator garden, encouraging family and friends to learn about bees and appreciate what they do for people.

 

(LE)