DUSHANBE, August 8, 2008, Asia-Plus — To develop the bee-keeping sector the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has purchased more than 86,000 somonis’ worth of honey-production equipment in the Russian Federation, Muzaffar Mirzoyev, head of the MoI directorate for animal husbandry, fishery and bee-keeping, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, 601 honey-bee families, purchased this year with support of the government, have brought the total number of bee families at the state unitary enterprise Asali Tojikiston (Honey of Tajikistan) to 1,327.
In all, seven bee-keeping associations and farming units in the country now have totaling some 119,000 bee families, Mirzoyev said, adding that more than 280 tons of honey have been produced over the first six months of this year.
The MoI official added that the government had made a decision to launch Tajik-Qatari honey-producing joint venture Tojikiston-Qatar-Asali. “They work on laying legal foundation of this enterprise is under way,” Mirzoyev said.
“At the first stage, the Qatari side intends to invest 2 million US dollars in development of the bee-keeping sector in Tajikistan,” the MoA official said, “Of this amount, we plan to spend $95,000 for purchase of special German equipment for testing quality of honey and its components”
Due to this, the Tajik honey will be certified in accordance with international standards and will be realized on world market at appropriate prices. At present, the Tajik honey has only Tajikistan’s certificate and is realized only in the Central Asian region at very low prices, Mirzoyev said.
