On December 27, 2024, a meeting of the permanent sub-sectoral group for regulating the honey market was held, which was attended by the Chairman of the EBA Supervisory Board, Mr. Mende Trajkovski and three representatives-inspectors from AHV (food and veterinary agency) were present at the meeting.
The meeting report was delivered by Mr. Mende Trajkovski, who also spoke about the activities of the EBA at the meeting and provided us with a report from the meeting.
We thank Mr. Trajkovski for his efforts and for introducing the representatives of his home country to the work and activities of the EBA.
Report from the PPGM meeting held(the permanent sub-sector group for regulation of honey markets).On December 27th, a PPGM meeting was held at the Ministry of Agriculture,Forestry and Water Management with the following
A G E N D A
1. Increased inspection supervision over bee products
2. Harmonization of the annual ordinance for animal health protection
Three representatives-inspectors from AHV (food and veterinary agency) werepresent at the meeting.After the first point, the president of PPGM – Mende Trajkovski explainedto the audience that regarding the presence of honey of dubious quality(counterfeit honey) present on the market, there is a lot of discussion in theEBA (European Beekeeping Union) but also that we at the local level should takeover certain actions, so for those reasons we have scheduled today’s meeting,for which we are very grateful to the representatives from AHV who are presenttoday at this meeting and to agree on future steps together.After a long discussion (in whichalmost everyone present participated), several conclusions were reached:
1. In the future, the inspectors of the green markets (where honey is alsosold) should carry out inspections once a month (and not once a year asbefore), and with a recommendation, if possible, that the inspectors be fromother cities (not local) in order to avoid possibility of no relationships andfriendships.
2. We ourselves proposed to carry out controls at the events themselves(organized by local associations, Unions, etc.) where the promotion of honeyand other bee products is carried out, all in order to protect ourselves andamong ourselves (because maybe among us there is someone who makes a living byadulterating honey), and to the question of the representatives from AHV whowill pay for those analyses, we all agreed that we, through the associations (Union), will pay for everything in order toreach a result.
3. And in the markets, more frequent control should also be carried out, and tocontrol whether the labels state the origin of the honey and where it isfilled, and all of this should be visible so that consumers can read it.
4. And when we are with consumers as PPGM and as SPZM we will also contact theorganization of consumers in order to work together to create a campaign forconsumer education.
5. To discuss with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, and the Faculty ofAgricultural Sciences and Food (and possibly with other interested parties) forthe introduction of an appropriate method for laboratory analysis of honey.
6. In the future, the cooperation between AHV and beekeepers (associations,Unions, etc.) will be raised to a higher level.After the second point (by the representatives of AHV) we were informedthat (according to the animal health protection law) a clinical examination ofthe bee colonies must be carried out, and for 2025. it is planned to be carriedout in August and September (which was our request for the previous year aswell), and to be in constant contact with the Chamber of Veterinary Doctors,and with an appeal that the examinations be carried out on the spot. 27.12.2024, Skopje
President Mende Trajkovski
