“First: Mandatory registration for beekeepers and honey producers
The decision obligated all beekeepers, including hobbyists who own one or more hives, in addition to producers of honey and other bee products and queen breeders, to register in the farmers’ registry with the Ministry of Agriculture, with the aim of creating an accurate national database for the sector and facilitating technical, health and guidance follow-up.
Second: Regulating the distribution of beehives and protecting pastures
The decision stipulates that the Ministry of Agriculture, through its agricultural centers, will supervise the organization of the distribution of apiaries on Lebanese lands in coordination with municipalities, mukhtars, cooperatives, unions, and specialized associations, according to scientific standards that take into account the carrying capacity of pastures and limit overcrowding, which leads to decreased productivity and the spread of diseases and pests.
The decision also required obtaining prior permission from the competent agricultural center before establishing any fixed or temporary apiary or hosting beehives during the harvesting seasons, while specifying the numbers of colonies, their locations, and their transportation periods, in a way that ensures justice among beekeepers and maintains the environmental and production balance.
The decision included detailed criteria for distributing hives according to the type of pasture, whether in citrus and avocado orchards, oak forests, barrens and natural reserves, or field and aromatic crops, in addition to specifying safe distances between apiaries, residential areas and roads in order to preserve public safety.
Strict control of honey quality and prevention of adulteration
In the context of protecting the quality of Lebanese honey, the decision stressed that honey sorting, ripening, packaging and storage places be subject to periodic oversight by the Livestock Directorate and the relevant departments in the Ministry of Agriculture.
The decision allowed technical teams to take samples of honey, wax, royal jelly, pollen, propolis, bee pollen, medicines and food supplements used inside apiaries and send them to accredited laboratories to conduct the necessary analyses.
Any direct or indirect mixing of honey with manufactured materials or sugar solutions was also considered a form of intentional fraud, which exposes violators to legal prosecution in accordance with Lebanese laws related to consumer protection, public health, and combating food fraud.
Mandatory specifications for honey packaging
The decision required honey package labels to include clear information including the name of the product or institution, phone number, type of honey, date of production and expiration, net weight, place of production and country of origin, with the possibility of adopting an electronic tracking system via QR Code.
It also prohibited the use of labels such as “organic honey” or any claims related to the percentage of purity or health properties unless they are supported by certificates and analyzes issued by official laboratories and references accredited by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Protecting the health of bees and promoting sound management of bees
The decision included detailed provisions to preserve the health of bees, obligating breeders to periodically monitor pests and diseases, especially Varroa, Trubellius, foulbrood, Nosema, and viral diseases, and to report them immediately to the relevant agricultural centers.
He also stressed the necessity of implementing collective treatment programs for pests, and monitoring the use of toxic agricultural pesticides that negatively affect bees and pollinating insects, especially during flowering seasons.
With regard to nutrition, the decision prohibited feeding bee colonies designated for honey production with sugar solutions or protein substitutes during periods of nectar flow or honey production, in order to preserve the quality of the product and prevent any indirect contamination or adulteration.
Organizing queen rearing and improving local breeds
The decision included careful regulation of the queen breeding sector, subjecting the establishment of queen production stations to a prior license from the Ministry of Agriculture, while imposing advanced scientific standards related to breed selection, documenting lineages, and monitoring the genetic, productive, behavioral and health characteristics of the bees.
It also obligated queen breeders to prepare specialized technical records that include accurate data on disease resistance, productivity, healthy behavior, spring release, climate tolerance, and other scientific indicators used globally in genetic improvement programs.
Strict controls on the import of queens and the prevention of the import of cults
In the context of enhancing biosecurity, the decision set strict conditions for importing queens from abroad, most notably obtaining prior approval from the Ministry of Agriculture, attaching the queens to official health certificates proving that they are free of diseases and pests, in addition to subjecting them to veterinary quarantine when needed.
The decision also restricted the import of first-generation queens within a specific time period of the year, while allowing the import of zero-generation queens according to precise scientific conditions linked to controlled artificial or natural insemination.
On the other hand, the decision prohibited the import of whole bee colonies and packaged bees in order to preserve the general health of the Lebanese bee wealth, with the exception of bumblebees used in agricultural pollination.
Training courses and continuous scientific updating
The decision stressed the organization of periodic training courses for beekeepers on the foundations of modern breeding and the technical and legal conditions for establishing apiaries, under the supervision of the regional agricultural departments and the beekeeping department in the ministry, in a way that contributes to raising the efficiency of workers in the sector and promoting sound practices.
This decision reflects the Ministry of Agriculture’s direction towards building an advanced and sustainable bee sector, based on scientific management, health control, quality improvement and environmental protection, in a way that enhances the position of Lebanese honey and bee products in local and foreign markets, and contributes to supporting rural development and protecting natural pollinators, which are a fundamental pillar of food security and environmental balance.
