It is hard to produce organic honey in Moldova as there is no organic farming in the country. Many beekeepers give up producing organic honey. Of the over 7,800 beekeepers registered in the country, only ten were licensed to produce organic honey, Vasile Dolghieru, president of the Association of Exporters of Apiculture Products, has told IPN.
He said that organic honey is produced in beehives situated near forests, but the wooded areas in Moldova are not very large. This honey is by 25-35% more expensive than regular honey, but the production costs are very high. There is now no data about the export of organic honey from Moldova in 2021, but such honey will definitely be exported from the harvest of 2022.
In the case of organic honey, it is banned administering medicines to bees, painting beehives with paint that contains chemical elements or feeding bees with sugar syrup. There must be clean organic plants within an area of 3 km of the hives. The apiaries should be far from roads so that the nectar collected by bees is free from chemical substances coming from car exhaust fumes, stated Vasile Dolghieru.