TEHRAN- With more than 390,000 beehives and production of more than 12,000 tons of honey per year, Khoy county stands at first place in honey production in West Azarbaijan province, in the northwest of Iran, according to a provincial official.Khosro Shahbazi, the head of West Azarbaijan province’s Agriculture Department, also said that more than 1,400 people are active in the beekeeping industry of the county.He said that the presence of the country's largest beekeeping company in Khoy has turned this county into the first pole of bee breeding and the production of its products in West Azarbaijan province.As announced by the official, it is expected that annual honey production will reach over 32,000 tons in the province in the current Iranian calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2024.Saying that the average production of each modern beehive is 17 kilograms and of the native beehive is 5.5 kilograms, Shahbazi said that there are more than 1,345,000 beehives in the province, of which 110,471 are native beehives and the rest are modern.The official has announced that 30,000 tons of honey was produced in the province during the past Iranian calendar year 1401 (ended on March 20).He said that about 24 percent of honey produced in the country is produced in this province, and in addition to consumption in domestic markets, part of it is also exported to the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf.West Azarbaijan is one of the provinces with a pleasant climate with green plains and foothills and a very high plant diversity with more than 1,500 plant species, and its summers are rich and favorable for beekeeping.With a good annual growth of five percent in the beekeeping industry, this province has been able to rank first in the country in honey production in recent years, and its modern apiaries are increasing every day.According to the latest census of the country's apiaries by the Agriculture Ministry, the production of honey is 136,000 tons in the country, a board member of the Iran Beekeepers Association announced.Mohammad Fekri said that with producing 30,000 tons of honey per annum, West Azarbaijan province supplies more than 22 percent of the country's annual honey, East Azarbaijan, Fars, Ardebil and Kermanshah provinces come next, and about 43 percent of the honey is produced in other provinces.As stated by the chairman of the Animal Science Research Institute of Iran (ASRI), Iran ranks third in the world in the number of apiaries.Mokhtar Mohajer also said that Iran's rank in honey production is changing and moving between the fourth and sixth place in the world.Based on the data released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Iran is the third-largest producer of honey in the world.The chairman of the Animal Science Research Institute has said that the amount of honey production in the country should be increased by three to four kilograms per colony.Mohajer said, “According to the Seventh National Development Plan (2022-2026), the amount of honey production should be increased by at least three to four kilograms per colony according to the diversity of plants and the area of pastures that we have in the country”.He announced that 8,300 kilograms of royal jelly, 406 tons of pollen, 2,536 tons of beeswax, 247 tons of propolis, and 3,917 grams of bee venom are produced annually in the country.Currently, there are about 11.8 million bee colonies in 109,759 apiaries in the country, he added.Pointing out that Iran ranks third in the world in the number of apiaries, he said 87,932 people are working in apiaries in the country, and the output of these apiaries is honey and its by-products.Stating that all these products are not consumed domestically, he said about 10 percent of these products are exported to countries such as Turkey and Arab countries.Complaining about the low amount of honey production compared to the number of apiaries and colonies, Mohajer said the average production of honey in Iran is much lower than the standard, in a way that about four kilograms of honey is produced in traditional colonies, and an average of 9.6 kilograms of honey is produced in modern colonies.He stated that the low literacy of the producers is one of the main reasons for the low production in the colonies, adding that the production potential of each bee colony in the country is more than 25 kilograms.MA