Making money with honey in Türkiye

IFAD News

Figure: Fatma transfers larvae laid by a queen bee into milk frames to produce royal jelly. © Fatih Turan.

In the highlands of southern Türkiye, the hum of bees provides the springtime soundtrack and the town of Bozkır is honey heaven. Thanks to the clean air, plentiful thyme and pine, and cold-water springs, 85,000 kilograms of honey are produced here every year.

Bees are perhaps the most important creatures of the ecosystem and our food systems. Three-quarters of the crops we grow for food depend, in some part, on pollinators, so by protecting bees, beekeepers are also protecting biodiversity.

Around 250 people in Bozkır earn a living from beekeeping—we met two of these.

Building a bee business

Born and raised in Bozkır, Fatma (34) and Fatih (40) Turan have been beekeeping since 2015. Business was buzzing so they decided to expand.

With support from the IFAD Göksu Taşeli Watershed Development Project (GTWDP), they received 50 empty beehives, which gave them the opportunity to scale up their business.

High quality honey

The better you take care of bees, the more honey they will produce. “It is necessary to be sensitive, their frames must be taken one by one,” explains Fatma.

While the couple use sugar to feed their colonies during the winter, they carefully monitor this in order to ensure their honey retains high levels of proline and diastase—vital for good quality honey.

This approach seems to be working. Their honey harvest grew from 700 kilograms last year to 1000 kilograms this year, which they sell primarily in Istanbul. The family have also branched out from honey, producing and selling queen bees, pollen, royal jelly and propolis.

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