Apidolomiti is organizing the party scheduled from 15 to 17 October: “We will do it, even if this year we were damaged by bad weather”
TO THE PORT. The 2021 edition of the Honey Festival has been confirmed: Apidolomiti, Pro Loco and the Municipality are working to implement the program of the event on stage from 15 to 17 October. But it risks skipping the traditional competition that rewards the best Belluno producers.
In the meantime, at Apidolomiti they try to comment on a vintage to forget. «So far we have recorded an overall decrease of 70% in honey production compared to normal», says the president of the association Luca Stefani, «all the spring productions have turned out to be virtually nil. It is true that during the summer period there was a slight recovery, but it was not effective in qualitative terms: in the end the blooms were not important ».
The alarm raised by Stefani touches all types of honey, from dandelion to acacia, from lime to chestnut. The fault of the temperatures remained well below the norm until the month of May, during which the usual blooms were not found. «Our bees had not been able to bring nectar into the house», Stefani emphasizes, «so many that we were forced to feed them with special syrups because otherwise they would not have been able to survive. It was quite a critical moment ».
Despite the efforts and commitment put in place, the risk is that the internal competition at the honey festival, which has been rewarding the best producers for years, may skip: “We will decide over the weekend whether it is actually appropriate to keep the competition or not: the there is a risk of running into a few samples and therefore of not giving the right value to the product », Stefani emphasizes. Waiting for the honey festival, Apidolomiti will participate in trade fairs for the sale of the product, one of which will be Scoop in Cortina, scheduled for today and tomorrow.
Refunds
The Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies recognized the exceptional nature of the frosts that occurred in the Veneto territories from 7 to 8 April. From 29 August to 12 October, farms can submit applications to obtain contributions to compensate for the damage caused by the frosts that have hit the beekeeping farms. The compensation rate for damages is envisaged in the maximum percentage of 80%, (which can be raised to 90% in disadvantaged areas), of the average gross salable ordinary production. Single and associated agricultural enterprises can access; farming cooperatives.
Among the requisites to be admitted to the compensatory intervention, there is also having suffered damages exceeding 30% of the average gross salable ordinary production.
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