Beekeeping is practiced in all EU Member States without exception, being characterised by the diversity of production conditions, yields and beekeeping practices. The EU supports this sector through national apiculture programmes in order to improve the production and marketing of honey.
Apiculture programmes for 2014-2016 in all 28 EU Member States, co-funded by the EU, were approved in the Commissions Agriculture Management Committee on July 18.
With € 33.1 million available from the EU budget each Member State has access to the EU aid scheme by drawing up a three-year period apiculture programme detailing the measures it intends to implement and the expenditure foreseen for these measures.
The level of EU contribution is fixed according to the number of hives in the Member States.
Irelands funding is approx €33,000 per annum to 2016.
An interesting graph is the honey produced per country. Countries with comparable populations and some with more northern climates (DK, FI) produce significantly more than Ireland. Estonia for example with a population of 1.3m produces 4 times more than Ireland.
EU Honey production per Member State 2011 (tons)
More details from the European Commissions Agricultural and Rural Development site.
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