Written by Ivana Katsarova.
Pollination is a fundamental process for the survival of our ecosystems and ultimately, of our planet. Nearly 90 % of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend on pollination, along with more than 75 % of the world’s food crops and 35 % of global agricultural land. Without pollination, many interconnected species and processes functioning within the ecosystem would collapse. Not only do pollinators contribute directly to food security, but they are key to conserving biodiversity.
There are different pollinator species – such as bees, butterflies, birds and bats. Most of the 25 000 to 30 000 species of bees – Hymenoptera: Apidae – are pollinators, and together with moths, flies, wasps, beetles, and butterflies, they make up the majority of pollinating species. However, close to 35 % of invertebrate pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, face extinction globally. If this trend continues, staple crops like rice, corn and potatoes will increasingly be substituted for nutritious crops, such as fruits, nuts and vegetables, eventually resulting in an imbalanced diet.
Intensive farming practices, land-use change, mono-cropping, improper use of pesticides and higher temperatures associated with climate change all pose threats to bee colonies, by reducing their access to food and nesting sites, exposing them to harmful chemicals, and weakening their immune systems.
We all depend on pollinators and it is therefore crucial to try and reverse their decline. To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development, the United Nations designated 20 May as World Bee Day.
Every year pollinators make a €15 billion contribution to the agriculture industry and ensure pollination of around 80 % of crops and wild plants in the EU. In 2022, the over 710 000 EU beekeepers took care of more than 20 million beehives. Greece had the highest number of hives per beekeeper (99), followed by Bulgaria and Cyprus (81) and Spain (80).
The EU is the second largest honey producer after China, but it is also a net importer of honey mainly from China (40 %), Ukraine (26 %) and Argentina (12 %). EU countries with the largest honey production – Germany (34 %), France (31 %), Romania (30 %), Spain (27 %), Hungary (25 %), Italy (25 %), Poland (24 %) and Greece (22 %) – are mainly located in southern Europe, where climatic conditions are more favourable to beekeeping.
In 2023, the European Commission registered 1 million valid signatures to the ‘Save Bees and Farmers’ citizens’ initiative. To protect bees and people’s health, the European citizens called on the Commission to propose legal acts to help phase out synthetic pesticides by 2035, restore biodiversity, and support farmers in the transition.
More recently, in 2024, the European Parliament and Council approved measures to protect consumers and beekeepers from adulterated honey, and to facilitate informed consumer choices through increased transparency. The new piece of legislation makes it compulsory to indicate clearly, close to the product name, the countries of origin of the honey, ‘in descending order of their share in weight, together with the percentage that each one represents’. However, EU countries would have the flexibility to enforce this obligation for the four largest shares only when they account for more than 50 % of the blend. Should this not be the case, the percentages would have to be indicated for all the countries of origin. To ensure flexibility, packs under 30 g could indicate the names of the countries of origin by international two-letter ISO codes (DE for Germany for instance), as suggested by Parliament.
However, Members of Parliament had to come to a compromise on traceability. Parliament would have preferred that every producer had a unique identification code, so that all batches could be traced to the harvesting producer or importer. Instead, the Commission will need to conduct feasibility studies before proposing harmonised methods of analysis to detect honey adulteration with sugar, a uniform methodology to trace the origin of honey, and criteria to ensure that honey is not overheated when sold to consumers. Parliament was successful in its demand for the establishment of an EU platform of experts to collect data, improve controls, detect adulteration in honey and make recommendations for the future EU traceability system. After a formal adoption by the Council and by Parliament in April 2024, the new legislation will be published in the EU Official Journal and will enter into force 20 days later. EU countries will have to apply the new rules two years after entry into force.
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