5th Honey Festival kicks off in Damascus
With the participation of 50 beekeepers, activities of the 5th Honey Festival kicked off Saturday evening at Tishreen Sport city in Damascus.
The festival will showcase different kinds of honey production as well as food, medical and cosmetic products that contains honey as a basic component. A number of companies are also showcasing their food products to visitors before the holy month of Ramadan.
Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Rami Al-Ali told SANA that 17,000 families are working in the field of beekeeping and the ministry, through its centers in the governorates, manufactures and sells hives to farmers at encouraging prices. He added that the ministry has a special stand in the festival that includes bees, silkworms and products made from silk.
Director of the ministry’s Agricultural Economy Department Ahmad Diab, for his part, said that the festival aims at marketing the honey sector in partnership between the Agriculture ministry, the Union of Arab Beekeepers and the Syria Trust for Development, and at introducing the honey product directly to the consumer at an acceptable price and with high quality and specifications that match Syrian standard specifications.
Salim Zahweh, Deputy Head of the Arab Beekeepers Union-Syria, pointed out that the festival has become a tradition to promote and market honey products, clarifying that the union works in cooperation and coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture to address the problems facing beekeepers, especially the spread of the Varroa insect.
Hamda Mustafa