Italian beekeepers sounded the alarm on Tuesday over a plunge in honey production, saying bizarre weather patterns had caused a 30% drop in the amount of honey produced this year.
The National Union of Italian Beekeepers (UNAAPI) blamed severe springtime storms followed by drought-like conditions in June and July.
It said the summer heat had been particularly damaging, causing a 70% decline in the amount of eucalyptus honey produced and a 50% drop in the amount of chestnut honey produced.
The union said sunflower and Millefiori honey production had also been affected, although to a less serious degree. UNAAPI Chairman Francesco Panella said the production of lemon and orange honey in Sicily had been completely destroyed by heavy rains in the spring.
At the same time, he said acacia honey production hit record levels in central-northern regions because of high summer temperatures and an absence of rain. He said that Italy's 50,000 beekeepers normally produced between 10,000 and 11,000 tonnes of honey a year but that this year, the figure would be down to 7-8,000 tonnes. The UNAAPI also expressed concern over the falling appeal of honey to Italian consumers and a sharp rise in honey imports from Argentina and China.
Farmers' union Coldiretti said that imports of foreign honey rose 12% in the first five months of 2006 and would increase further in the near future to cover the drop in Italian production.
Meanwhile, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) stressed that bees were particularly sensitive to climate change. WWF biodiversity expert Fabrizio Bulgarini said that "bees are good indicators (of climate change) and it would be sensible to study the phenomenon scientifically".
