Domestic honey production is likely to fall in the current calendar year (to end March 20), deputy agriculture minister Hassan Rokni, told Mehr news agency on Tuesday. Saying that the ministry of agricultural Jihad cannot announce an exact data until the yearend, the official said that honey production is expected to slump due to the prevailing water sacristy and low precipitations. According to Rokni, the country produced about 74 thousand tons of honey in the last fiscal year (March 21, 2013- March 20, 2014). Statistics provided by the government show more than 65,000 beekeepers, with a total of 5.6 million beehives, produce 71,142 tons of honey per annum. Based on state data, 3,700 tons of honey is annually exported while the country has no honey import.
