Due to very unfavorable weather conditions, the honey harvest in France will drop by 40% in 2024

Published Oct 8, 2024

Tridge summary

France's honey production has significantly dropped by 40% in 2024, according to the French National Union of Beekeeping, due to adverse climatic conditions such as heavy rain, late frosts, and wind. These conditions hindered the bees' foraging activities and in some regions, the honey crystallized. Beekeepers faced challenges in maintaining colonies and reported increased costs from providing food supplements. The situation varied across regions, but most spring harvests were disrupted. Despite the challenges, the year saw a decrease in the Asian hornet, a predator of bees. With production remaining below French consumption, the country is expected to make up the shortfall with imports of foreign honey.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

The forecasts were bad. The 2024 results confirm this. Honey production is down 40% compared to the previous year. "We can reasonably estimate that the 2024 honey harvest in France will amount to around 12,000 tonnes. It is almost 40% lower than that of 2023, which we had estimated at around 20,000 tonnes," confirmed Christian Pons, president of Unaf, the French National Union of Beekeeping, on Tuesday. Even if the results are mixed from one region to another, as in Hérault where it was a very good year, the deterioration of climatic conditions is the main factor in these poor harvests. As Unaf points out, the unfavourable climatic conditions, a mixture of heavy rain, late frosts and wind, prevented the bees from foraging. The low temperatures had, in some places, crystallised the honey. Beekeepers are fighting to keep colonies alive Prevented from going out, some colonies even nearly starved to death. As Adapic (Association for the Development of Apiculture in the Centre) told us ...

Source: Bfmtv