Up to 4,000 beekeepers from around the world are arriving at the Royal Dublin Society's exhibition halls this week for Apimondia, the crème de la crème of the bee world.
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Brendan Smith, officially opened the apicultural congress yesterday evening.
Apimondia 2005, which runs until Thursday, will host delegates from 100 countries. The congress boasts 116 exhibitors with individual beekeepers, bottlers, equipment manufacturers, bee-byproduct developers and scientists. It is the largest international conference in Ireland this year and is expected to bring between €5-8 million to the economy.
Delegates queued yesterday to have their photographs taken between a human beehive and a human flower, courtesy of Macteo, the commercial arm of Galway arts group Macnas. Inside, the beekeeping community of the world mingled. The atmosphere was convivial, but masked a division among honey producers, who appear to split into monofloral and multifloral.
The colour, flavour and consistency of honey is affected by the flowers that honey bees visit. In Ireland, they generally visit a variety of plants but, in some countries, they focus predominantly on one type of flower.
Monofloral producers proclaimed their singularity with pride; multifloral producers rubbished the idea honey is superior if it is produced with single-flower nectar.
Peter Bross, president of the Hungarian Beekeepers' Federation, came to fight for his country's monofloral honey. Hungary is the largest monofloral producer and was protected by its government until joining the EU. Its main crop comes from bees feeding on the acacia tree. The product is clear and delicately flavoured. Hungary also produces chestnut, milkweed and sunflower honey. In February, the federation protested in Brussels against the removal of support for its 12,000 members and a fall in honey prices.
"We are selling monofloral honey but the huge companies are mixing a bit from here, a bit from there. We are afraid that European monofloral honey will disappear," Mr Bross said. "Monofloral honeys are important, chestnut is good for eye injuries, acacia for sore throats."
But Eduard Planken, Australian honey-bottler and president of the International Honey Exporters' Organisation, believes good honey is blended honey. "The colour and flavour of honey is driven by floral species, soil temperature, conditions. Everyone thinks their honey is the best."
The congress features the competition for the title appearances by various 'Honey Queens', including those from the US and Britain. Claire Kehoe holds the Irish title. Apart from the expert sessions, there are layman's talks and demonstrations on topics such as apitherapy, the beneficial use of bee products in the prevention and treatment of a number of ailments and health problems.
